Shared with Sadje’s What Do You See #327 picture prompt
Shadows Hall – 15th February 2026
Tag: What do you see
Within a wall
Axis Mundi – 4th February 2026
Shared with What Do You See #326 picture prompt
A reliquary, stone and timber,
void, earth, water, wind, and fire,
A shinbashira pendulum
that sways to quell the quake’s desire.
A cosmic axis, a connection
from human to the divine,
A transcendental protection
in sacred mandala’s design.
Hear the peaceful water’s fall,
the way cannot be denied,
Shadows span the temple tall
in the mountain countryside.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
On Being Invincible
Able to parry any blow
without flinching or reaction
Our reasoned choice will know
the best course of action
Shifting Sands – 21st January 2026
A pantoum shared with Sadje’s What Do You See #324 image prompt.
Here I am again, fighting time,
memories are swept on the breeze;
They spilt through these fingers of mine
and found impossible to please.
Memories are swept on the breeze,
to retrace my steps on the sands,
and found impossible to please,
as the future slips from my hands.
To retrace my steps on the sands,
this endless toil, so repeated;
As the future slips from my hands,
can the past ever be cheated?
This endless toil, so repeated,
slipping through these fingers of mine.
Can the past ever be cheated?
Here I am again, fighting time.
Today’s Daily Stoic poem:
A Morning Ritual
Maybe making words a meditation
To clear out the gossamer dust
A careful ritual examination
Of the only mind one can trust
Mind Your Step – 7th May 2025
in your head
in your mind
mind full of thought
mindful of thoughts
thoughts that make no sense
thoughts unexpected
unexpected and anxious
unexpected and rising
rising day after day
rising repeated
repeated becomes practised
repeated again and again
again it’s been learned
again this vicious circle
circle ever decreasing
circle takes the square
square it all up at the end
square off with yourself
yourself your significant other
yourself true to form
form from your comprehension
form from understanding
understanding what’s real
understanding your truth
truth from facts
truth beats the lies
lies were your past
lies that you remember
remember those dark days
remember searching, tentative
tentative feet forward
tentative outstretched hands
hands over fist
hands pulling taut
taut the tendon deep
taut to hold together
together you and yours
together finding the way
way down was then
way to go now found
found yourself a ribbon
found yourself a hold
hold on to the guardrails
hold on to the future
future never feared
future finds your step
step into the light
step out of the darkness
darkness
light
Shared with What Do You See #287 and inspired by this post by Nilofer Neubert using the Blitz form, which has this stack of rules:
Line 1 should be one short phrase or image (like “build a boat”)
Line 2 should be another short phrase or image using the same first word as the first word in Line 1 (something like “build a house”)
Lines 3 and 4 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 2 as their first words (so Line 3 might be “house for sale” and Line 4 might be “house for rent”)
Lines 5 and 6 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 4 as their first words, and so on until you’ve made it through 48 lines
Line 49 should be the last word of Line 48
Line 50 should be the last word of Line 47
The title of the poem should be three words long and follow this format: (first word of Line 3) (preposition or conjunction) (first word of line 47)
There should be no punctuation
8th Aug 2025 – Shared with Poets and Storytellers United #189
A Bucketful Of Sand – 24th April 2025
When you left, I promised myself
to build us a mountain
for our future;
each day, a bucketful of sand;
building this monument
towards the sky.
When you return, in my dreaming,
your journeys at an end;
together then;
each day, the winds of time will take
a bucketful of sand,
until it’s gone
Shared with Momoetry April Poet Month challenge – ekphrastic and WDYS #285 picture prompt and the idea came after reading Time Passes here
Charlie Zero The Poet Music picks & Reviews #19 and my quick thoughts:
Trepaneringsritualen – Getting Neubauten and Keuhkot vibes from this. As others mention at bandcamp – riveting, terrifying, menacing! A good Thursday morning downer.
Haunted Horses – If this was the first time I heard this style or genre then I would love this. Very good.
Gay Beast – This is my kinda thing and already familiar to me. I’m always looking for more music along these lines.
Lunar Mistake – I like this, it could grow on me. The vocals put me off on the first song but are nice on others. Kinda soft-prog. Gonna listen some more.
Atrium Carceri – I don’t have time for this. I’m not a young man anymore. I get all the ambient noise I want at 8 pm in my jungle village.
To Be Sure – 28th March 2025
Oh, funny little man
sat here forevermore,
curious of my plan,
to be sure, to be sure.
A question to all comers
over the bridge, explore
through winters and summers,
to be sure, to be sure.
The old and defeated
are curious no more,
their lifetime completed,
to be sure, to be sure.
Shared with What do you see # 281 picture prompt
Place Of Thinking – 28th February 2025
Belly up snakes submit to murder
Of crows gathered along dead branches
Lizards eyeing up insect lunches
The drama unfolding absurder
Beady eyes sun-blinded unblinking
For millennia the pace glacial
Existence seeming interspacial
The rock and the hard place of thinking
Shared with What Do You See #277 picture prompt above.
A Splendid Winter Wood – 5th December 2024
It’s a splendid winter wood
– On a chilly December morning
– – The crunchy road straight
– – Towards the gnarly wooden gate
– Unhinged a snowy warning
Where splendid walls once stood
It’s a splendid moss a-growing
– To shade this dewy frost
– – Ray’s barely breaking through
– – Another turn remained true
– At a further year’s cost
Awaiting the splendid summer’s glowing
Shared with Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – splendid and WDYS #265 picture prompt
Canon – 20th November 2024
I have the words within my pages
My knowledge forms your future texts
Amassed wisdom sung from many sages
Collected comforts to which all connects
This power I pass for you to share
The lessons lived easily explain
To conquer chaos and choose to care
To shrink in size or grow to gain
Your personal action accumulates
Eyes sparkle like dancing diamonds
Mixing the messes of made mistakes
Form the future from many islands
Shared with What Do You See #263 and submitted to an AllPoetry assignment about alliteration.
Today I’m feeling:
OK, once I got going. I slept pretty well and my alarm was a bit of a shock. Exercise and a cold shower jazzed me up all right and once at school, it was fun to back around the students, which gave me some positive vibes.
It was a pretty easy day with one grade 12 class (who were more rowdy than usual but still did my work) and a quick grade 10 class that was excellent. I really like that class, but there are 47 of them, and it’s difficult to take time with some individuals that need help more than others.
Health:
Physical: 7
Mental: 7
Today I’m grateful for:
Deciding to go to Oasis to pick up some dinner. I think I haven’t been there for more than six months now and the food is as delicious as ever.
The best thing about today was:
Being so happy and relaxed after my last class that I was still chatting with students around the school an hour later.
What was out of your control today and how did you handle it?
Something I learned today?
I figured out what I was trying to remember yesterday! It was when I was in the bathroom, drying myself off after a shower. Just recently, I noticed that my right nipple is lower than my left! Maybe it’s always been like this – I’m not sure.
Anyway, I was wondering if it might be connected to the pain I have in my right shoulder. Maybe some muscles in there are not quite working properly.
I have a desire for symmetry!
Review your acts, Good and bad.
I made Baipad and Q get up and walk this morning – just for a couple of minutes. I talked to Q but he couldn’t understand any English but Baipad translated everything quickly and easily. I told her that she should think about getting into translation work.
Later, in my grade 12 class, Men told me that he does translation for mobile games. Maybe a good contact for Baipad for the future.
One More Time – 10th November 2024
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.
1994ever 