Tag: Ragtag Daily Prompt

Wildfire – 22nd October 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Taking hold, inspiring
Vague truths based on fear
Idle minds, enquiring
Further spread the idea

Like Chinese whispering
Messages manipulated
Open wounds blistering
New slogans, proudly stated

Moses pleads, dividing
The confusion reigns supreme
A past of deciding
Put an end to the dream

Barren earth, burning
Bushes dry for fuel
To darkness now returning
Death before the school

15th Jun 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt

The law of progress holds that everything now must be better than what was there before. If you want something better, and better, and better, you lose the good. The good is no longer even being measured.

Hanna Arendt

Today I’m feeling:
Excited, thoughtful and dizzy
Today I’m grateful for:
Sunscreen. Thank you for protecting me today when it was impossible to escape the sun. Your smell does make me miss the beach though.
The best thing about today was:
My long long long ass bike ride to mountains previously unexplored. So much beauty along the way. It’s a paradise. For me, for now.
What brand best represents your values?
Hmmm…weird question. I don’t know what values brands have. Perhaps they promote themselves with having a particular value… I don’t know. What most folks identify with brands I feel no affinity with at all. To me, brands value one thing and one thing only and that is money. If their products are good then good because they fucking should be!

I took this picture because this magnificent tree stood out after turning back towards the temple from the river at Toeng. So much shade, in my mind I transported it back to our garden and I could sit under it all day.

Jungle Garden – 25th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 2 Comments

Too many bananas, papayas and lychees
I got passionfruits stacked up to my knees
Chillies and pumpkin grown from spat-out seeds
On every speck of dirt, even amongst the weeds

Mulberries hang over the neighbour’s fences
I pick his mangoes to save on expenses
The land of plenty, these abundant times
We can’t even eat all the goddamn limes

26th Jun 2024 – Shared to Weekly Prompts Wednesday Challenge
29th Oct 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – pumpkin

…our age cries out for the redeemer personality, the one who can emancipate himself from the grip of the collective ‘psychosis’ and save at least his own soul.

Carl Jung, Development of Personality

Today I’m grateful for:
Making it through the day without too much stress despite feeling tired and dizzy.
The best thing about today was:
Was briefly talking and joking with Nong Cake. She is still a smart kid. She was preparing Thai and Japanese flags for Japan day tomorrow and I made a joke that the Thai flag was for Italy and she immediately understood and said that the Japanese flag was for Indonesia.

I took this picture because this is what my students drew on the board before class started. Baipad and Jan claimed responsibility and which was a little surprising though I know Baipad loves drawing. The picture made me laugh and then I teased them that I would show the head teacher and they begged me not to.
This is Trevor’s picture but of the same sunset that I was looking at last night. It was mesmerising.

Living In A Story – 12th August 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We are living in the world of a novel
Where fiction has become all too real
Satisfied within the home of a hovel
And being told how to think and feel

This dystopia goes unrecognised
As we’re distracted with flashing lights
We’re no longer surprised
To find we’ve given up our rights

The man on the screen makes me glad
And the woman, young, beautiful and smooth
Advertise a world that contains no bad
Merely there to comfort and soothe

The Truman Show, The Infinite Jest
Were warnings not to be imitated
But when we put ourselves to the test
That’s exactly what we’ve created

17th May 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – Dystopia

People interpret religious texts on the content of their own hearts.

Shane Fang, Facebook comment

Teacher’s Day – 23rd June 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Oh, the pretty girls must perform
The majority sweat to conform
Candles lit and incense burned
Bless today for what was learned

Rigid rows and rigid rules
Sets the tone within the schools
Passive acceptance, the cultural norm
Here’s Pavlov’s children to perform

31st Oct 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – rigid

Unsolicited advice is the junk mail of life.

Bern Williams

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to find the Yousician offer to upgrade to play loads more songs cheaper than my current subscription – how good is that!?

The Week That Was – 9th September 1979

The Rock Of Truth – 21st June 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Standing on the bank of the river
Sympathies for those floating by
Your tears will cleanse your heart
You cannot comprehend my cry

I am the truth as rock
Stood for a million years
Listening to your sad songs
Whispered between your tears

Empty is your heart and hand
A touch so inviting and smooth
Your house without mirrors
To view your soul to soothe

Long you looked in ridicule
Shackled to the ebb and flow
Grabbing onto sparkling gold
And screaming to never let go

Imagery inspired by a Khalil Gibran short story

15th Jun 2024 – Submitted to RagTag Daily Prompt

Our diversity is not a reason to hate each other. Quite the opposite, we must admire and respect it.

found at Khimushin Alexander, original unknown

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that my brain was keeping me happy yesterday. It was a fun day at school with no teaching and lots of kids always wanting to talk with me.

International – 7th June 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Each preaches supremacy
The strong over the weak
Diversity is shunned
Minorities must not speak

Talents for demagoguery
Making movement extreme
Stoking international mayhem
To fulfil the collective dream

Protecting elite interests
A collapsing rule of law
Dictatorship in disguise
And the inevitable coming war

5th Oct 2024 – Shared with Ragtag Daily Prompt – mayhem

Information is abundant, it’s the desier to learn that’s scarce.

Naval Ravikant

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be tested every day by my lazy crazy students. What a trip! Thank you, coffee!

Get The Winch – 28th May 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You used to be an armchair warrior
But now you got so fucking fat
You’ve become a sofa warrior
Unable to wriggle from where you’re sat

14th May 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt

Sometimes I like to read a book that has nothing to do with my life, which often has the effect of making me wish for a different life.

Elisa Gabbert

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for all the technology we use so that Amy can order and pay for food for our cats to be delivered to me and can see her face on video calls for her mum’s birthday today, even though we are in different hemispheres.

Daggers – 1st May 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Be kind to the beggar
Never offer insults to the poor
Their circumstances now
May not be forever more

Kindnesses are soon forgotten
An insult will often remain
Digging daggers at the heart
Playing a waiting game

15th Mar 2024 – Submitted to RDP Friday

It takes great talent and skill to conceal one’s talent and skill.

François De La Rochefoucauld

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to Nong Briyao for bringing yummy mangoes from Udon Thani for me.

A Problem To Want – 15th April 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Kids, you are so lucky to be bored
I wish for a return to those days too
But someone here has to wash the dishes
And do all the things that I have to do

I suppose these things could be neglected
But who will feed the cat
In fact, I have to get myself fed
And who’s gonna take care of that?

Enjoy these times of twiddling thumbs
Pulling pleasures from thin air
Get to work at being bored again
One day soon, you’ll want back there

25th Aug 2024 – Submitted to Ragtag Daily Prompt – want

You know what, your problem isn’t the outside world. Your problem is the story you’re telling youself about the outside world. And that story is a choice. If you’re not happy with the story, tell yourself another story. That simple.

Seth Godin

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be surrounded by good things, to have opportunities and choices. And to choose to do nothing and just be relaxed.

Those Who Wait – 12th April 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

The seduction of the capitalist
To need, to want, to own
It’s easy to trick yourself
Into feeling you have grown

Now it seems so quaint
To buy at market stalls
Next shutting down the shops
To build great shopping malls

And now their lacquer fades
As everything can be found online
It’s only a few clicks
But who really has the time?

Don’t posture like a bohemian
Of course, these things are great
But the truly great things
Are those for which you wait

12th Apr 2023 – Sometimes I look back at things I’ve written and can be quite impressed with myself. At this time when the wonders of capitalism are starting to be questioned more and more it feels like we are in a downward spiral of forever chasing shiny things to the detriment of our sanity.
21st Apr 2024 – Submitted to The Ragtag Daily Prompt

You can swim all day in the sea of knowledge and not get wet.

Norton Juster

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that my old computer has lasted for ten years but I think it may be about to die. It’s had a good run.

The Week That Was – 27th May 1979