Category Archives: challenge

January 16, 2021 · 1:43 pm

No Surrender – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

For a double dare by Beverly Crawford, and with sympathy for Jane Dougherty, following my poem The Next Dance.

Photo: found on pinterest.com

“There is a grandeur in winter, stern and wild it may be, but a grandeur which speaks to the soul.” CJ Peterson.

No Surrender

The sly cocktail dress sits sublime in ice
upon the line all formal and smooth,
while my dungarees have actually taken shape
as if possessed by a ghost, all stiff and 
starched, no wrinkles or sag like the sack 
of potatoes they normally pose draped upon me, 
the ice has claimed the denim and holds it in 
its steely grip as if fit for Ned Kelly's last 
stand where there will be no surrender until
the sun breaks free.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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January 13, 2021 · 1:23 pm

And I Float – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – What pulls on your soul?

Photo: pixabay.com

“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.” Alan Watts

And I Float

Where the wild iris blooms by itself,
in the deep forest of my unmask,
where my heart runs white water,
my mind surrenders to gladsome song.

In the deep forest of my unmask
all attachment falls to the ground,
my mind surrenders to gladsome song,
and I float as a peace dove sails.

All attachment falls to the ground,
its redemption uncertain in this humous,
and I float as a peace dove sails,
a feathered turtle in the sands of time.

Its redemption uncertain in this humous
where my heart runs white water,
a feathered turtle in the sands of time
where the wild iris blooms by itself.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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November 19, 2020 · 3:26 pm

Hung By Threads – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Intimacy

Photo: found on pinterest.com

“Real intimacy is a sacred experience.” John O’Donohue

Hung By Threads

We were sleek gazelles 
caught in the moment of spring,
drawn to sup the youthfulness
of our open, tender flesh,
mirrored in our eyes of lusted,
dilated caresses, dishevelled
electric pulses flushed on skin,
opening us to summered days
of trusted space and listened
moments so raw that we hung
by threads of breathless knowing
unborn of reason, and the once 
moist latch now open to the 
treasured feltness of heart,
bonded as healed wounds,
and vested in renewed seeing 
that we dared to share as we 
grazed the plains of intimacy
unafraid of lions.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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November 5, 2020 · 3:07 pm

Shaping – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Soft

Photo: lakesidepottery.com

“You have to be in tune with the clay and react to what state it’s in to work with it.” John Shepperd

Shaping

He hewed the clay
and mellowed it with a little sand,
his wet hands moulding, teasing,
seeking its soft tone, rolling,
pinching, shaping every delicate
coil to a vase that blossomed before 
him with a purposed strength 
most useful in its vulnerable void 
awaiting colour.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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October 29, 2020 · 2:51 pm

She Went Deep – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Frost

Photo: activenorth.se

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” John Steinbeck

She Went Deep

She went deep, 
so deep that she opened the door 
of summer's heat to winter's cool
in a flash of such interior calm that
time slowed down a pulse of almost
nil and a half where the externals 
were clear for the first time and
she slipped away inside, distilling
everything to an unsurpassable 
peace of body held as she withdrew
the world from her heart under a 
canopy of frost so cool, the heat of 
life could not seduce and melt her.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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October 22, 2020 · 4:00 pm

Look Closely – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Except

Photo: found on pinterest.com

“We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.” H.G. Wells

Look Closely

What of those ghosts of the past,
glory days as melancholy cast as
shadows passing as unbalanced
moments in which I have no need
to know if the future is real,
we are already here even as  time
is running backwards in parcels
of discovery towards what matters,
compelling images of the paradox 
of love unbalanced in swirls of
colour, except you really do have
to look closely in order to feel 
through the door to it all.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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September 24, 2020 · 1:30 pm

So Sly – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – How It All Started

Photo: pixabay.com

“What you seek is seeking you.” Rumi

So Sly

Who conspired,
the water or the stars,
not withstanding wise camels
or knucklebones cast,
even lusted lustre could be closer
to my beaded sweated hankering
after your voluptuary offered,
so sly with a wink of your hips
just visible in your eyes
is how it all started so breathless,
unravelling in our unfathomed,
restless entwining.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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August 13, 2020 · 3:17 pm

Exquisite – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Taste

Photo: wallpaperflare.com

“…. true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul.” Audrey Hepburn

Exquisite

The recipe was not lost,
simply one off,
never to be repeated, 
just one pinch of shyness,
a sprig of humour,
some joy generously added,
an abundance of love
layered in all its flavours,
with a dash of awareness 
and finished with a quiet
confidence lightly held,
such an exquisite being,
to taste her
is to taste the strength that 
holds everything together.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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July 26, 2020 · 3:13 pm

A Certain Substance – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Quotation

VJ invited us to write using part or all of the following quotation by Maria Popova: “Strive to be uncynical, to be a hope-giving force, to be a steward of substance.”

Photo: popsugar.co.uk Veteran Captain Tom Moore who on the eve of his 100th birthday raised money for the British National Health Service charities by doing sponsored laps of his home. £32 million!

A Certain Substance

He had an air about him,
a certain substance that wove 
itself into his every movement,
as a weaver makes a cloth,
so he wove the fabric of his life
in neat, yet colourful rows,
with just enough peculiarity
to stand out in a crowd for
the right amount of notice
while retaining dignity,
a man of gravitas.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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July 19, 2020 · 2:10 pm

To Be Continued – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Next Chapter

Photo: pixabay.com

“Life shrinks or expands in proportion top one’s courage.” Anais Nin

To Be Continued 

The book began with a smile
and leaned into a few words
here and there around all
the many moments
that sparked with energy,
and I thought a short bio
might just cover it,
but the spark lit a fire
and the chapters ran on,
so that by the fifth I thought
the glow might dim a little,
instead it continues with fervour
in to a new chapter
of many moments,
framed in a world on the cusp
of something that sparks 
with possibility, but then,
I love a good mystery.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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