Monthly Archives: May 2020

May 29, 2020 · 4:54 pm

To Breathe (George Floyd) – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

https://dversepoets.com/2020/05/28/openlinknight267/

Grace at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night, the night we choose a poem of our own to post.

Photo: New York Times


“I Can’t Breathe” George Floyd 

To Breathe

The tissue of life is delicately thin,
especially when the protectors grin,
arraigned with a knee and
pinned to the ground,
he couldn't breathe;
no judge, no jury,
they refused his cry,
the man needed air,
we was guilty, without sin,
they murdered George Floyd
with a dirty white lie and
since the moment he stopped,
I have struggled to breathe.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

I struggle with this, I wept for this man, for us, for life!

Paul, pvcann.com

35 Comments

Filed under death, Elegy, Free Verse, grief, life, poem, quote, Restorative Justice, Uncategorized

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May 28, 2020 · 1:38 pm

The Moth – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge: Risk-Reward

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Image: pixabay.com

 

“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.”  T.S. Eliot

The Moth

To burn,
catch fire,
wince with pain,
recoil, return,
like a moth to the flame,
a zeppelin alight,
all warnings ignored
my fingers to the fire,
a searing, scorching heat,
they urged me back,
to be near her is risk,
a reward enough.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

14 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, love, poem, quote, relationship

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May 27, 2020 · 4:15 pm

There Was A Room – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Make Me Some Room

Laura at dVerse has invited us to write about a room or rooms in whatever manner.

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Image: wakeup-world.com

 

“I am not absent-minded.  It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.”  G.K. Chesterton

There Was A Room

Once,
I had memories of an outside world
that I never left, but never lived
since the solace of solitude
there was another place,
my room within a room,
I vaguely remember,
was it large or small,
attic or other?
To know is never important
whether the room was in me
or I in the room,
there was a room.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

30 Comments

Filed under dreams, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, quote, Spirituality

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May 26, 2020 · 4:02 pm

Pretending – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Fake-People-Real-Fraud

Photo: thegoodmenproject.com

 

“There is a price to pay for speaking the truth. There is a bigger price for living a lie.”   Cornel West

Pretending

There are some,
but few lines are straight,
we are two uneven halves,
and the wind whips nature
into new maps as rivers
carve bends that even turn
in on themselves while
the relentless ocean
ever wastes itself on
shoreline rocks,
but we become illusion
to satisfy demands,
we straighten lines and bends
offering opinions
that want to be heard,
presenting faces that
want to be seen,
living a deception of ourselves,
pretending to believe in the
straightness of lines.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: The Japanese have a word that describes those who pretend to believe something to suit society – Tatemae

Paul, pvcann.com.

18 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, life, mindfulness, philosophy, poem, quote

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May 25, 2020 · 3:40 pm

My Eye’s Delight – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

RDP Monday – Gossamer

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Photo by Brad Warland, australiangeographic.com.au  A Golden Orb spider.

 

“Is there anything in the universe more beautiful and protective than the simple complexity of a spider’s web?”  E. B. White

My Eye’s Delight

I saw her working,
her uncertain, improvised easel
holding a whitened canvas,
just waiting for those
seemingly random daubs
of bold impressionism,
free form interpretations
splashed with meaning,
today there was no mere
Renoir or Cezanne,
this delicate weave of
gossamer sheer,
an orb’s masterpiece
for my eye’s delight.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

27 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, nature, poem, quote

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May 24, 2020 · 4:07 pm

Are We Ready – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: pixabay.com

“The only thing we know about the future is that it will be different.”  Peter Drucker

Are We Ready

To say future
implies something real
something sophisticated and desirable
which is hidden from us,
are we ready for this future
we cannot see,
where all predictions fail,
and where there is no center,
except yours,
mine,
fluid,
floating,
ever floating,
marking no time,
setting no tables,
keeping no account,
missing connection,
passing by.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

36 Comments

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May 23, 2020 · 3:31 pm

All In A Moment – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: northerndailyreader.com.au

 

“The wind whispered secrets in its own incomprehensible way.”  Tracy Rees

All In A Moment

I noticed the way
the wind whipped across the paddock,
barley dancing playfully,
swaying this way and that,
at once catching the light,
now becoming shadows,
swirling, bowing, rising
to the applause of the stringybark
and squeaked approval of mudlarks,
all in a moment,
as if just for me.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

30 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, Farm, Free Verse, nature, poem, quote

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May 22, 2020 · 3:52 pm

Everyone Matters – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: pexels.com

 

“All human beings are my neighbours. We share the same planet.”  Ana Monnar

Everyone Matters

The journey to my neighbour’s is
longer than any other I might take
until that moment when
the chasm is drawn closed
against the comfort of denial
and the habits of suspicion,
then the patterns of self give way
to an emerging knowing and
a lived experience of kindness,
giving space for gratitude,
no matter how fragile
in this place where everyone
and everything matters, and so,
in this garden of life,
love grows.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

16 Comments

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May 21, 2020 · 4:29 pm

What If – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Circling

Image-Rut

Photo: lifeoffbalance.com

 

“The only difference between a rut and a grave are the dimensions.”  Ellen Glasgow

What If

Drifting
along this narrow deja vu,
once again I pass you,
in familiar places
of textured prescription,
ever circling the interment
of this rutted trench,
the padre’s whisper
haunting the way,
as we skate this
tired path,
what if
we stepped out,
out of this grave
and into the brave
unprescribed geometry.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

23 Comments

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May 20, 2020 · 4:33 pm

Of Yesterday – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Portals

Anmol at dVerse has invited us to consider portals for our poem in Poetics.

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Photo: Ormiston Gorge, NT. A fabulous place just to be.

 

“Holding on is believing that there’s only a past; letting go is knowing that there’s a future.”  Daphne Rose Kingma

Of Yesterday

 

Quiet,
said the silence,
let the air be thin,
nothing will fly,
only the grace of birds,
no words will form
for a traverse
of yesterday,
wear nothing dark,
for though tomorrow
we bury the past,
it is the mystery of
the future we grieve.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

43 Comments

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