Tag: Poets and Storytellers United

Seed Fall – 31st May 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 15 Comments

She cracked the dry seed pod open,
tipped the tiny black seeds into my hand,
closing my fingers around them—
a secret we both knew would not grow here.

Did she close my fingers to keep them safe,
or to make sure that I would feel them slip away?

I let go of the seeds—
but I kept the shape of her fingers closed around mine.

Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #229 – Letting go

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

We Have But One Obligation

In your life, there’s just one thing
That must be done to make it sing
Be a good person, make no excuses
Do your job so that no one loses

Two Wrongs Etc… – 6th March 2026

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 24 Comments
The image shows the girls of Shajareh Tayyebeh Elementary School in Minab on February 25th, who were all killed in an attack attributed to the United States and Israel.

Inspired by and paraphrased from this anonymous message from a young man in Iran published by Equator, commenting on how the fervour he feels from outside the country does not consider the fallout of the supposed heroic actions of their saviours.
Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #217

The diaspora is manic.

Disconnection,
bordering on hallucination.

Speaking a second language
hearing only the first.

Opposite things can be true
as enemy flags flow
in harmonic waves.

Rhetoric raises ghosts
outside of reality’s window.
Feverish certainty
knows no consequence.

Outside is only more noise
in solidarity with itself.

But here,
real,
live,
breathing…
‘symbols’!

Fantasy politics, safely
in faraway fields,
grain-fed on grief
no one has to harvest.

Take these children,
lay them neatly on the altar
of an unnamed dawn.

Call it tomorrow.

Today’s Daily Stoic poem:

Don’t Tell Yourself Stories

Are the tales we tell about ourselves really true?
Was everything so certain and so real?
Don’t create a fantasy around everything you do
When for others it holds no appeal.

Lovely List – 17th November 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 37 Comments
  • The first coffee of the day
  • Watching our kittens play
  • Whiskey on a winter’s night
  • Holding someone special tight
  • Memories triggered by song
  • Feeling right where you belong
  • Watching all the children grow
  • Teaching all of what you know
  • A great poem that you wrote
  • Inspiration from a quote
  • Causing a new friend to smile
  • Contemplating for a while
  • Watching the river flow by
  • Migrations across the sky
  • A forest walk in the rain
  • Waking up again, again

Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #203 – love/hate
15th May 2026 – Shared with dVerse – List poem

The Neon Consensus – 9th November 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments

Let the water run to make its song
echo within these four enclosed walls;
Dreams confound the comforts of the dark.
The cull begins as the winter calls.

Bowed to god made of trivial light,
now singing for a dollar and change.
In the cold and damp, the neon’s glare
reflects this consensus, fake and strange.

Submitted to unknown intentions,
stood together in isolation.
The dark is always waiting nearby
when confusion led to temptation.

Misunderstandings silently grow,
written on the walls of silver and gold.
In the darkness deep under the ground
are where the prophets’ stories are told.

Teardrops fall like rain just out of reach,
to sprout the seeds with the words to teach.

For the Poets and Storytellers United prompt #202 this week, the subject was ‘what I love about the dark’, which led me to investigate the Simon and Garfunkel song ‘The Sound of Silence’, as the first line ‘Hello, darkness, my old friend’ came to mind. My poem references the song, but also the annotations found at genius.com that analyse the meaning of the song. Overall, the poem highlights both the positive and negative aspects of the dark.

Here’s how my poem came together (which I feel like explaining today):

Stanza 1:

  • Lines 1 and 2 reference this quote from Paul Simon:
    I used to go off in the bathroom because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I’d turn on the faucet so that water would run — I like that sound, it’s very soothing to me — and I’d play. In the dark.
    Change carries a double meaning here.
  • Line 3 references this annotation of the second part of the first verse of the song:
    These lines lead us to believe that Simon had an inspiring dream, the vision of which can be easily recalled when he seeks out the comfort within the darkness.
  • Line 4 references the Kennedy assassination, which is thought to be part of the inspiration for the song.

Stanza 2:

  • Lines 1-4 reference the lyrics and annotations for the second verse
    …the author has a dream about ten thousand people bowing to a god they made of neon light. The god represents the fake and shallow culture they are building on pop stars and the dollar bill. The author feels as if he is the only one who is not content with living in the fake, trivial culture that was stated.

Stanza 3:

  • Line 1 references this annotation
    Silence refers to submission. He reveals how people so foolishly follow rulers without actually knowing a ruler’s true intentions and background.
  • Line 2 references this annotation
    …the song’s theme about people’s isolation and failure to communicate with or understand each other. 
  • Lines 3 and 4 continue this idea but try to show that the darkness is there for either ill or good, and it’s up to the individual how they choose to deal with it. Using it as a place to grow and learn, or to remain in ignorance.

Stanza 4

  • Lines 1 -4 reference this annotation
    “Writing on the wall” is a biblical reference that refers to a prophecy of doom. Daniel 5:5 tells the story of an arrogant king of the Babylonians who worshipped gods of gold and silver. 
  • Silver also references the subway cars from the lyric in verse 5
    And the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls…”

The couplet

  • These two lines are a rewrite of three lines in verse 4 of the song, and attempt to find a better way of managing the darkness
    “Hear my words that I might teach you
    Take my arms that I might reach you
    but my words, like silent raindrops, fell…”

October’s Monologue – 12th October 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 8 Comments

Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – October. Looks like I kinda wrote another autumn/seasonal poem!

A woodsmoky voice and an air of damp earth,
I am the fight between fire and frost.
A necessary surrender to long days of mirth;
it’s dizzying green confidence slowly lost.

I am taught by the balance of the equinox,
a perfect tipping point towards the dark.
Opposites are revealed in the winding of clocks
to set the woods ablaze with a beautiful spark.

A misunderstood beauty is admired in release;
your confessions lay your architecture bare. 
A thousand papery secrets fall with caprice,
then forgotten like a quietly whispered prayer.

At the door, I tell, ‘Rest now, your work is done.’
To love something means you must also let it go.
Do not mourn when the truth cannot be outrun;
just look me in the eye and enjoy my show.

40 Years – 12th June 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments

every day, no meat
it’s been this way 40 years
so much more to eat

every day we meet
for breakfast, lunch and dinner
every day no meat

a challenge to others’ fears
young and old alike
it’s been this way 40 years

a life still complete
without the death and killing
so much more to eat

A cascade poem using the haiku form (stanza 3 made inside out) as prompted at the Chimeric Poetry Scavenger Hunt: and shared with Poets and Storytellers United #180: Stubborn About the Small Things

Time Masters Call – 4th April 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 23 Comments

Shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge – free verse and inspired/paraphrased from this post at Spinning Visions
23rd Jan 2026 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #211 – Night and Day

With you, I find myself wishing;

everywhere I look

…all I see are clocks…

…tick, tick, ticking…


Both feet rarely grounded,

but six-thirty,

twice a day, at time masters call.




Fill my hourglass with molasses

because I cannot make it stick;

make the drips slow and sweet…

tick, tick, ticking…

Later;



The world entirely changed;

a rose garden under concrete

pillars that hide the sky.

Redded hands,

strawberry smears or bloodied

stings of sweat and toil?




With you, I find myself wishing;

twice a day, at time masters call;

at these intersections,

…all I see are clocks…

…tick, tick, ticking…

Pretty March Buds On Young – 11th February 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 7 Comments

Shared with Poets and Storytellers United Friday Writings #163: Backwards, Upside Down, Inside Out taking an existing poem and writing it backwards to see where it takes you. My original poem ‘Young Buds March On Pretty’. I like this idea and will probably try it again.

Heart beating your temper,

Sun towards more,

– no run

To start a January and

dying December is why

Slowly the beyond comes running

Pretty March buds on young

go more; one of us will give

Spring for hope eternal

Clear to start the snowfall and

wane the winter will

When year’s end, a month’s a

dead time; this is why

We Don’t Need Another Poem – 20th January 2025

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 24 Comments

We don’t need another poem
Out of the holidays, out of the seasons
Don’t make the same mistake again
Rolling seas and moonlight are not reasons
To write another one the same
And I wonder when are we ever gonna change
A prompt repeated ’til nothing else remains

We don’t need another poem
We don’t need the same old metaphors
All we want is life beyond
Another simile that simply bores

I know it’s something we can rely on
But there’s got to be better out there
Love and nature, their day is done
Just another castle built in the air
And I wonder when we are ever gonna change
A prompt repeated ’til nothing else remains

We don’t need another poem
We don’t need the same old similes
All we want is life beyond
Another metaphor to simply please

So what do we do with our lives?
We leave only a mark
Will our poem shine like a light
Or end in the dark?
Give it all or nothing

We don’t need another poem
About autumn, Christmas or Halloween
All we want is life beyond
Another set of rhymes already seen

To the tune of We Don’t Need Another Hero. After following a number of poetry prompt blogs for more than 12 months now I found it a little amusing that the same seasonal themes return again.

It’s more an observation than a criticism as I rarely bother to write about seasons specifically, or holidays (especially if they are not relevant to my location). Folks can write about whatever makes them happy. It’s easy to not read something! But I do like to be challenged by the writer to perhaps come at the prompt from a new angle for a change.

26th Sep 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – fall

Said And Done Again – 31st December 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 13 Comments

A reckoning with my younger self,
nostalgia or all a nonsense?
We should want to change the world,
guided by our conscience;

As the crossroads multiply,
direction becomes obscured;
Pulled along on divergent tides,
wildly thrashing, unmoored;

Ideals discarded to the wind,
just another day to survive;
Waking up to realise
the destination will soon arrive;

A reckoning born of experience
as ideals began to wane;
Everything ever said and done
will be said and done again.

30th May 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #179 – starting over

Today I’m feeling:

A little blurry in the morning as I recovered from a few shots of Glenfiddich last night, giving me at least a good reason to feel dizzy.

I took my laptop to Utopia and did a little catching up on things whilst there and a couple of coffees got me good and awake.

After a snack and some video watching, I hopped into bed to read some comics, expecting to get sleepy and have a nap, however, the coffees decided it would be better for me to stay awake and I got up again and went out to my room to play guitar, which was loud and enjoyable.

Soon enough, it was time to head to Mum and Dad’s for dinner, which I am now recovering from.

Health:

Physical: 6
Mental: 7

Today I’m grateful for:

Trying out some pizza from a city restaurant and getting it delivered by Grab. Easy life.

The best thing about today was:

Wishing ten or so random poets at AllPoetry.com a happy new year while commenting on their work.

Something I learned today?

I learned how to set up a symbolic link across my different drives so that I can load all my comics into one common repository.

Review your acts, Good and bad.

I had a reasonable chat with Nong Fah today, trying to encourage her to use more than one or two-word answers to questions.

Whilst chatting, she also told me that she is a little worried about changing to high school next year. I told her that I understood but that I thought that she would be fine.