Tag: Robert Greene

Not So Sure – 16th June 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

What the hell was that dream?
Our little band of brothers
Was on the run from ‘the man’
Though why I’m not so sure

We were on the move
Trying to stay one step ahead
We had the guns and merch
It seemed too much to carry
We couldn’t load it all up in time
And one by one, we were picked off

Then it was just us two left
You and I became slaves
To the over-mother, naked
Forcing us to drink her ejaculations
In the hope of impregnation
For a new master race
To take over the changed world

2000AD is a future past
Eugenics, so last century
Dreaming a fever dream
Not so sure what’s real anymore

We choose to believe that the game is fair…we prefer not to think too much about the depth of our liberty to choose.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to get free milk coffee with my regular fruit yoghurt drink I like. Nice!

Fatman report

For A Moment – 10th June 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Softened by the sounds of reminiscence
Wrinkles remain around teary eyes
Grateful to hear words of confirmation
Previously hidden in reluctant compromise

Inspired by my students telling me that they wanted me back as their teacher.

What possible good can come from ignorance about other people?

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to the gardeners who transformed the out-of-control garden in exchange for cash and Amy’s parents who oversaw them and left me delicious food.

Old Geezer – 30th May 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

We didn’t know it before
Why the dark clouds came
You just had to get on with it
With only yourself to blame

Then someone turns on the light
And it all starts to make sense
So begins the slow process
To down the shields of defence

Inspired by reading Mick Wall’s Black Sabbath biography and Geezer Butler growing up with undiagnosed depression, much like myself.
9th Nov 2024 – Shared with Word of the Day Challenge – sabbath

The feeling of having no power over people and events is generally unbearable to us.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that Kim was waiting in the bookshelf this morning as I couldn’t find her last night to put her in her room.

Unambitious – 20th May 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Boris knew he was the one
But refused the offer many times
Only when it was insisted
Did he fall in with the signs
And George, he was the same
Saying he didn’t want to lead
He kept saying no, no, no
Until he finally agreed
It’s a thinking man’s game
So be most suspicious
It’s a clever way to play
To seem so unambitious

Paraphrasing Robert Greene’s Daily Laws for 20th May

Education is an imperfect shield against custom and tradition. In some ways, you may judge us still to be a little backward.

Kukrit Pramoj

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful that Cap woke up from his general anaesthetic yesterday. He’s still slow and grumpy but slowly recovering.

The Week That Was – 5th August 1979

Time Of The Gypsies – 9th May 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

I’ll take my shoe and crush you
What will my spirit do without wings?
He takes and he smiles
The tap is left running

A sheep led through mud
The house will be white like milk
The working man gets the turkey
Talking to the turkey

What did he do to my daughter?
He ruined my daughter!
Winged sunny bird, winged sunny bird
Follow my lead, what trouble brought you here?

Special lime for the girl brings a smile
Who will carry such a sack?
Fire is the basis of everything
Do you know how to kiss?

Mother of the forest, mother of the rock
White as milk
Like Richard Gere
A turkey tied to a foot

I can hold my breath
And then the curtain comes down
The turkey makes a run
You’ve got a magnet on your lips

There’s a ghost at work
A mirage, take the case and run
The smoke came out his ears
No money, no faith, you army bastard
I’ll pull out your eyes

He wants to slaughter me and left me hanging
Is there a place for me?
The moonlight smiles and I cannot jump my shadow
And I cannot die

The bells are ringing, that I cannot die
Who are you to hang yourself?
Love will hang us all
Bring me home and tell my story

A crying donkey
Play another song, too old to dance in the park
Dinner is a scene and the night a dream
Burning in bed, a mountain fairy mother

God gave, God took, what can I do?
I am an army bastard
The water spirits swinging fire
Blood risen floating desire

A slap in the face for the seeing
Angelic baptism
The champion is here, the protagonist in a white feather fanfare
Money for the madhouse

How does this hang together?
Your love is not worthy of my daughter
Look upon her beauty, all-white
Trouble is coming, you’ll kiss my feet

A ride initiated, even lost my shoes
Mother save me
For the last time – money or life
Do you want my soul?

A turkey on the table
Damn all you dead and living
I’ll lift up your walls until the rain comes in
Don’t cry, mother

Can you separate the earth from the sky?
Bloodletting to save a life
Exorcise the demons with its power
Where are you hiding?

You should be kissing my feet
The journey is just starting
There are angels and devils in my house
Unsure which is witch

Best enjoyed whilst watching the first thirty minutes of Emir Kusturica’s ‘Time of the Gypsies’

When choosing people to associate with, do not be mesmerised by their reputation or taken in by their surface image they try to project.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to be able to give our limes to Auntie Sue when she needs them, asking over the fence.

5th Sept 2023 – Both of the lime trees next to the fence have since died, eaten away inside by some bug. The other lime trees around the garden in various spots are still doing well though.

Mass Scale Perception Management Operation – 19th April 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

You are secretly perfect
But you will never know
The world is perfect too
Purposely hidden from view
The way of the world
Must be the way you go

Because all beliefs are false
The self is an illusion
Our eternities at heart
From the end to the start
Every no is made from yes
Despite our delusion

Learning how to learn is the most important skill to acquire.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to Matt and Mix and their family for cooking lunch yesterday when I went to visit. They made Sukothai Pad Thai. Followed by delicious home-grown jackfruit.

Fair Trade – 9th April 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Would you really trade wisdom for youth?
Too smart to ever fall off your bike
Born old and closed to new truth
Already knowing everything you like
The knocks that you took to grow
Gave deeper meaning to everything new
There are always more things to know
And these are the things that make you

Some people conform to the tastes of others, and they end up wearing a mask that hides their true nature.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for my little hard-working motorbike that took me up and away into the mountains today.

Letter from the future to Amy (sent 7th Feb 2022)

Dear Future Little Amy,

Right now, you are in Chatswood, Australia and I am in Chiang Rai, Thailand. I’m in a cafe because the school doesn’t have anything for me to do today. Jobs where you get paid to do nothing! Crazy!

I just talked to you on the phone as you were eating spicy Som Tum in our old Chatswood kitchen. You sound happy to be back in Australia although maybe not quite sure what will happen next.

You’ll go to Albury and Adelaide and take a look around there, thinking about future possibilities. Who knows, by the time you get this letter you may be thinking of running your own little business in one of these places. Or you may be thinking to come back to Chiang Rai, relaxing and drinking red wine, playing with the cats and watching Netflix all day.

I’m happy with myself and my job. You know that I feel good to be working with the students and not necessarily the school. I’ll hang in for as long as I can and try not to cause any trouble! Haha. You know me.

Little Amy, you know I really miss your cooking. It’s the best and you’ve always taken care of me with that. Even though we are far apart, it still feels like you are here. It’s easy for us to talk anytime we want.

Happy Anniversary Amy Kee Mow.
Love you so mootch.

The Last Word – 2nd April 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 1 Comment

Power exists in concentrated forms
A small group will always control the norms
The real directors behind the curtain
Your loyalty demanded true and certain

You must serve your master with the purse
Even though this way things turn out worse
Diplomacy gives your masters the glory
Your name erased from the final story

Inspired/paraphrased – Robert Greene
19th Jun 2024 – submitted to Writer’s Workshop Prompts

I don’t have to have an opinion about this. I can just let it be, I can ignore it, I can realise it doesn’t pertain to me, or I can just see it as it is… It doesn’t need me projecting my thoughts or beliefs or perceptions on it.

Ryan Holiday

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to receive my pay cheque yesterday and get to the bank in time. I hope the money clears quickly.

Greene On Keats – 25th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

This constant need for certainty
Is the greatest disease you may face
Creative power comes from negative capability
Mysteries are to endure and even embrace

Paraphrased, but almost word for word, Robert Greene talking about Keats.

The need for certainty is the greatest disease the mind faces.

Robert Greene

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful for Art to go book shopping in Chiang Mai for me and get me five music-related books. I’ll keep them at Utopia.

Malfunction – 13th March 2022

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

Malfunctions are a means of education
You must learn from your mistakes
The flaws revealed only in the execution
It’s the schooling that mastery makes

Inspired by Robert Greene’s Daily Laws (March – Mastery)

13th Mar 2023 – I thought this poem had a familiar topic as I had read about this again today. This means I have been reading the Daily Laws for one whole year now. It’s become my habit so I’ll keep going, just as I do with the Daily Stoic, which I have in physical form now and read a page a day in the morning with breakfast.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Theodore Roosevelt

Gratitude Journal

I am so happy and grateful to Dr Arnon’s staff for taking care of our cats. Tigger reports back in good health. Kim and Cap go next week.