Category Archives: community

May 30, 2020 · 2:14 pm

No One Could Hear Me – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: bbc.com
"A Riot is the language of the unheard." 

No One Could Hear Me

I dreamt a torrid dream,
that I was in a grand hall
and no one could hear me speak,
but everyone laughed at me,
pushed and shoved me,
took my coat,
punched and kicked,
spat at me, 
robbed me of everything
even my dignity,
I called for help,
no one came, 
they jeered it was my place,
to accept their fate for me,
so, I set fire to a chair and
burned the hall to the ground,
perhaps you can hear me now?

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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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

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May 4, 2020 · 3:46 pm

Together We Go – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: intelligentliving.co   one of the many wonderful scenes of Italians engaging each other across balconies and courtyards during the lockdown.

 

“One thing I have seen spread faster than coronavirus: connection – with family, friends, and our communities.”  Charles F. Glassman

Together We Go

I sat in the
impenetrable darkness,
a Götterdämmerung,
heavens rent sky falling,
some devoted to the tyranny
of lesser gods, while
others tried to escape
that which cannot be escaped,
while others inhabit
the same space,
Longing for a love that
asks no questions,
embracing struggles
with the paradox that
you, I, we, together go.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: Gotterdammerung – the twilight of the gods, popularised by Richard Wagner in his ‘Ring Cycle.’

Paul, pvcann.com

 

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May 1, 2020 · 4:40 pm

This Is The Moment – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Kim at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night where we are invited to choose one of our poems to post.

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Photo: soc.utah.edu

 

“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.”  Marianne Williamson 

This Is The Moment

Bated breath I hold,
waiting to wave goodbye
to those century-old habits
that have imposed themselves
from the dusty corners
of my existence as familiars,
waiting for something
meaningful which lies
beyond the self,
communities of care,
where nothing is jaundiced,
and no one is consumed,
this is the moment
where we turn to each
other.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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April 30, 2020 · 4:14 pm

Reducing The Distance – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Image: clipartbest.com

 

“Openness isn’t the end; it’s the beginning.”  Margaret Heffernan

Reducing The Distance

Fear and prejudice are manifest,
tearing at our hearts as
one fear begets another and
to step out of that slavery
is what brings us together,
reducing the distance of suspicion
where we discover each other
leaving no room for misunderstanding,
no longer wanting what I don’t want
and knowing that fulfillment is
that which is within is that
by which I live,
a hidden wisdom to
which I constantly respond
with surprise.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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April 28, 2020 · 4:00 pm

Open Myself – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Wild Card

VJ has challenged us to respond to the words of the Dalai Lama “The planet does not need more “successful people.” The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”  Dalai Lama

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Image: The work of Catherine Nelson and part of an extensive series called Other Worlds, see more at http://www.catherinenelson.com

 

“There is a way out, but the way out is really a way within.”  Ken Wilbur

Open Myself

The telephone booth beckons,
my hearts knows its mantra,
kenosis arrives in the moment
but only if I let it be so,
for I have to assent
to take off my high ground,
become the anti-hero,
open myself to the
transpersonal real,
singing back to earth
its own love song as if it
were my very own.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: Kenosis (κενωσις) is a Greek word meaning to empty one’s self, used formally in relation to the theological and philosophical understanding of the incarnation.

Paul, pvcann.com

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April 13, 2020 · 11:58 am

A Morbid Covidity – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: socotoday.com

 

“All people (men, sic) of the modern world exist in a continual and flagrant antagonism between their consciences and their way of life”. Leo Tolstoy

A Morbid Covidity

This is no costume party,
for too long we’ve been through
that narrow door of left-brain,
now vulnerable in our need,
cranking strategies of escape,
resolute in our distancing,
a strange geometry of intimacy,
the relationship we live inside of,
a tendency to forget who we are,
losing touch with ourselves,
a profound memory loss,
some new sacred,
shattered interior,
aversion to the herd,
a morbid covidity.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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April 11, 2020 · 4:15 pm

Breathe Again – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: David Mcnew, Getty Images.  LA as a result of Corona lock-down and less traffic has clearer skies. Once again Mt. Everest is visible from India and Nepal, and other cities, especially Wuhan, have clear air. For a moment the earth breathes, but only a moment, and we’re not touching even the tip of the carbon berg.

 

“Silence is only frightening people who are compulsively verbalizing.”  William S. Buroughs

Breathe Again

Why haven’t we done this before,
is the monk’s cell so vulgar,
so stark, that we cannot contemplate
the wholeness of solitude
and turn aside, weary as we are,
to rest a while from the wheel,
letting the earth breathe again,
that we might too.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

64 Comments

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April 8, 2020 · 3:49 pm

We Raged – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – In The Time Of The Plague

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Photo: http://www.newsoneplace.com

“Hope begins in the dark.”  Anne Lamott

 

We Raged

We raged against that suppuration
of darkness that swallowed the night
and laid waste to the light,
that consuming plague, which
wrote itself on the hearts
of unwitting bystanders
near the corner store,
or the park railings,
unpicked by sweating masks
whose tired incantations
wrenched large at death,
and laid in arks
the valley of flowers
hinting at the new Jerusalem,
we did not go gently.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

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March 31, 2020 · 4:14 pm

Mythos -a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Image: dreamstime.com

 

“In order to stay relevant, you have to stay open to new trends and keep educating yourself. You have to keep evolving.”  Natalie Massenet

Mythos

We speak out of one world
the mythos of our dramatized lives,
all and one speaking differently,
exhausting ourselves to be
refashioned as relevant,
we feel so free, but are we in a
sense just falling through the
habitual lines of our self-limitations,
failing to be curious about each other,
entering the skeletal ruins of our
beliefs, knowing that the thing
is not a thing until it is known
by love.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

21 Comments

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