Photo: Uluru at sunset, a calm and peaceful place, an ancient place, a deeply spiritual place.
“belief, like love, must be voluntary.” John Updike
Belief
Of orthodoxy there is no real centre
except of ink on paper
where imagination dies
a thousand deaths
in a rut of doctrines and dogmas
that pierce the heart
and erase the future,
imprisoning vision,
punishing hope,
and yet we are all heterodox
bringing our creative spice
to the great universal stew,
an ever changing recipe.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
parallax 
I like this very much. I like the reference to Orthodoxy and dogma and doctrine. And how it kills vision. Yes, I really like this one Paul.
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Thank you, yes, if you stay with that stuff you’re dead before die, appreciate your thoughts.
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I like this too, Paul.
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Thank you Punam 🙂
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You are welcome, Paul. 🙂
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where nothing is black or white ….
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Absolutely 🙂
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Love the first line (and also the quote) … reading each line in the poem is thoughtful delight.
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I appreciate your comments Dawn (did you disappear for a break?)
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You’re welcome. Yes, had something come up.
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🙂
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BTW just back to blogging. Have my site on private now.
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Thanks for letting me know, if it stays that way, don’t forget to invite us in if appropriate, 🙂
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Yes as soon as I can get my befuddled brain to work again 🙂
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O, well one step at a time 🙂
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bringing our creative spice to the universal stew – excellent lines! Superb writing!
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Reblogged this on The Reluctant Poet.
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Thank you muchly 🙂
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Always happy to share your posts, My Friend!
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Wonderful and so true! Thank you Paul! Best wishes, Michael
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Yes, thank you Michael 🙂
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Wow, last three lines…so clever!
Is that your photo too? Extremely beautiful!
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It sure is, I was so thrilled to be there too, a great place. Thank you so much Charlotte.
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I would have felt the same!!!
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Yes, I get that, such places are just so special.
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Beautiful photograph, Paul. Visiting Uluru is on my list of things to do some time soon.
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It doesn’t disappoint, so many facets and moments, I’ve been twice and I’d go again.
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Paul, leave it to you to hit the nail on the head! We are a “stew” – and that is what I want to savour – not isolating doctrines or divisive translations.
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I’m with you – Anthony de Mello once said – As soon as you look at the world through an ideology you are finished. No reality fits an ideology. Life is beyond that … I’m with him too (he died some time ago, a bit of a free thinking Jesuit and psychotherapist.
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Well said. Sums the feeling perfectly.
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Yes, we’ve sunk to the depths in the institutional churches though, time to open the windows and fly.
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Agreed.
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Pingback: I Believe…Sort of… – One Woman's Quest II
So true and so beautifully put
>
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Many thanks Lyn
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