Tag: rat race

One More Time – 10th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 37 Comments

Amongst the beauty of everyday
Familiarity may breed contempt
Waking with enthusiasm to play
Becomes more difficult to attempt

Maybe it’s a concrete jungle
Or a paradise you are facing
Each day a success or bungle
The happy rats keep on racing

So here it is and here we are
Another mountain for us to climb
Our attitude got us this far
‘cross crystal waters, one more time

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See picture prompt (above) and Reena’s Xploration Challenge – everydayness.
3rd Sep 2025 – Submitted to dVerse Poetics Tuesday – life and lemons

Today I’m feeling:

A little brighter today and trying to fight laziness. Must push hard as I spend a lot of my free time lying down and reading. I love reading but need to move my body more. What to do?

(Later) I avoided the dreaded nap today by playing guitar badly for more than an hour in my room and messing around sorting files on my computer for music and comics. Both things get me so excited, along with reading books too.

And before I know it, it’s dark outside, early evening as the winter slowly creeps nearer, yet I feel full of energy.

Health:

Physical: 7
Mental: 7

Today I’m grateful for:

The lady who served me at Tanapiraya, who remained fairly calm as there were many customers at the time and then she had to figure out what the free items were that the store was giving away and deal with the technology of the till software, which wasn’t doing what she wanted.

The best thing about today was:

Playing guitar was enjoyable, though the cheap strings that I bought are making me appreciate the more expensive ones that I will buy again in the future. As I’m pretty much just bashing away, it doesn’t matter too much but even I can tell that it should sound better!

I also just finished writing a poem connected with Native American mythology and compassion. I really enjoyed composing it and testing my brain with ideas.

Something I learned today?

Psephology is the scientific study of elections. I learned this from a poem I read today! ‘Psephos’ means pebble in Greek and ‘psephomancy’ is divination by pebbles. Pebbles were used by ancient Greeks in voting.

I took this picture because I was surprised by his sudden appearance as I was working near the window this afternoon. He’s getting bigger. This evening he’s still around, having a little relax near our water tank where I gave him some chin-rubs and affection.

On Form – 24th March 1988

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Like some old dog running down the track
Waiting for someone to pat you on the back
Your fits ain’t laughter, you just want to die
Your form book says twenty to one but no one asks why

24th Mar 2023 – I’m trying to reimagine and identify the protagonist here. Probably not a person in particular but a stereotype. Someone doing what is expected of them, playing the game, running the race but secretly hating themselves. That was something I didn’t aspire to.
I could hate myself as much as anyone but I would hate to have been seen as boring. Perhaps it was also my own way to boost my ego, to feel superior, misguidedly or not.

In And Out – 18th September 1983

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

In and out lifestyle, it becomes a bore
It’s boring doing the same things, I won’t anymore
In and out, repeat, repeat, clock the card
In and out, clocked in, trying too hard

5th May 2023 – Despite never having worked a day in my life I already was aware of the realities of the rat race. I’ve spent many years clocking in and out since then and admittedly, I do still hate that.