Monthly Archives: June 2020

June 30, 2020 · 2:34 pm

Can – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found on Pinterest

“If you don’t stand for something you will fall for anything.” Malcom X

Can

Line in the sand confronts me,
faint as it is its silence mocks me
as I stand before it,
there is no ferryman,
no bridge of rhetoric 
can traverse it,
only the contrite are close,
but a person of integrity 
can easily cross.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 29, 2020 · 3:10 pm

Weasel Ways – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: pixabay.com A weasel

Five Lines

“Weasel words from mollycoddles will never do when the day demands prophetic clarity from great hearts.” Theodore Roosevelt

Weasel Ways

It was your delicious moment,
a pause in the flow of words and,
like a weasel with an egg, you
sucked the life out of my words
and I faded away.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: A Weasel is of the genus Mustela (which includes stoats, polecats, mink, ferrets, otters, wolverines, martins etc.) one of their habits is to suck the contents of an egg leaving the shell behind. In 1900 the term Weasel Words was coined to reflect words that suck the meaning out of other words, e.g. organised chaos, some people say, experts recommend, are all weasel words.

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June 28, 2020 · 2:37 pm

Golden Lies – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: guerromistico.com

“A liar goes in fine clothes, a liar goes in rags, a liar is a liar, clothes or no clothes.” Unknown

Golden Lies

The lights went down,
the gathered hushed, 
curtains off to the sides,
a single light on centre stage,
act two was underway,
shadowy background figures
danced opaque dalliances,
while those closer frenzied
and flailed while the 
naked one in the spotlight
regaled his fine clothes,
a suit of golden lies
at his feet,
an unnecessary guile.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 26, 2020 · 2:33 pm

Other Voices – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Bjorn at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night with an invitation to post a poem of our choice. dVerse Poets

Photo: unsplash.com

“How silently the heart pivots on its hinge.” Jane Hirshfield

Other Voices

The house was not just any house,
it was of me and I of it,
intimacy was every sunken board,
chip and crack of age, and
today for the umpteenth time
the back door squeaked in
greeting at days end,
perhaps that my mind was weary,
and the torture too hard to bear,
that I took the cannister and oiled
that squeak to a silence bare,
peace reigned in all but heart,
I missed that voice,
disturber of life,
provocative spirit,
it made me think.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 25, 2020 · 2:34 pm

What Is Our Revolution? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: billboard.com

“The worst form of injustice is pretended justice.” Plato

What Is Our Revolution?

The games they play,
sophiticated pettiness,
a reduction to a 
complex immaturity of
monopolising
greedy children,
bra snapping,
hair pulling,
soup spitting,
thuggery
loosed as 
legislature,
how, or when, why,
did we do that?
Perhaps more pressing,
what, is our revolution?

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 24, 2020 · 3:36 pm

This Drowning Life – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

De at dVerse has invited us to write a poem about or around mermaids. dVerse Poetics

Image: found on Pinterest

“The most dangerous creature in all the seas: a mermaid.” (Hook) J.M. Barrie

This Drowning Life

Mermaids are very real,
not those bare breasted beauties,
half fish teasers who tempt sailors
to their watery grave with sung
promises of seduction offering the
world for one single embrace,
no, real mermaids are in our midst,
teasers of the hight street
whose seduction is so complete,
they drown us in our own desires.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 23, 2020 · 3:17 pm

To Dare – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Decisions

Photo: Getty Images

“The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision.” Maimonides

To Dare

That next step,
what might it mean,
an ontological rift or
that the shadows 
have shifted?
How ironic, of course
they're shifting anyway,
why the hesitation?
The tension of change 
is all around you,
overtaking you,
now is the time,
to dare to move.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 22, 2020 · 1:54 pm

Held You – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

RDP Monday – Pinnacle

Photo: climber Alison Hargreaves, found on Pinterest.

I have written about Hargreaves before, a haunting story of courage and accomplishment and death. Tragically her son Tom died climbing in 1919.

“And if you are given two options, take the harder one because you’ll regret it if you don’t.” Alison Hargreaves

Held You

The pinnacles of Peak gritstone
enticed you to claim their craggy faces
week after week until you were ready
for the most audacious exploits 
of Eiger and Everest,
their foreboding reputations surrendered
to your determination and courage,
except the last, as it came to be,
when instead, K2 jealously claimed you
for itself, reluctant to let you go,
and, for a time, held you in its icy maw
as honour to your craft.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 21, 2020 · 3:28 pm

Beware, The Magpies Are Singing – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Corvid – 2020 Weekly Challenge 13 (Final)

Photo: http://www.birdwallpapers.com

“There are many rhymes about magpies, but none of them is very reliable because they are not the ones that the magpies know themselves.” Terry Pratchett

Beware, The Magpies Are Singing

Like the sound of a drunken black cockatoo,
the windmill squeaks its grinding rotation,
tail flapping in the breeze
which cools the sweated skin,
it's early, but it's hotter than hell,
a sinister augury of the day's endurance
that only cold beer will quell at its end,
right now the magpies are singing their song,
carolling their advent of spring's enterprise
and the need to stay out of their range,
for they've hatched a plot for a geography
they intend to defend.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 19, 2020 · 2:09 pm

This Moment – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Frank at dVerse is hosting Meet The Bar and has invited us to write a poem in the vogue of ‘imagism’ (e.g. Pound, Williams and etc.). dVerse Poets

Photo: pixabay.com

“Our world is at the crossroads.” LL COOL J

This Moment

This moment is the moment,
and nothing of surprise,
to be in this space,
this place we dread,
its tensioned uncertainty,
this moment of burdens
unreleased and pressing
on conscience everywhere,
this moment of crossroads
an eon chancing change
after many trials,
this moment in my eye is
a twinkling of goodness,
the moment of all moments,
is this moment now.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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