Category Archives: community

December 25, 2022 · 2:12 pm

Could We? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength.” Sigmund Freud

Could We? 

How are we to understand each other,
is it better instead to ignore convention,
to participate in a discontinuity,
could we chance a conversation?

Is it better instead to ignore convention,
look for possible opportunities,
to participate in a discontinuity,
could we open to each other?

look for possible opportunities,
follow bread crumb trails of dialogue,
could we open to each other
setting aside fear and disinterest?

Follow bread crumb trails of dialogue
to participate in a discontinuity,
setting aside fear and disinterest,
how are we to understand each other?


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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October 25, 2022 · 3:35 pm

Community Soup – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Mish is hosting the Haibun with an invitation to write about soup.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – Soups On

Photo: buzzfeed.com

“There ain’t no point in making soup unless others eat it.” Kate DiCamillo

Community Soup

How does one make soup? Ingredients, of course, and thoughts run to vegetables, meats, spices and herbs, and ways of blending, concocting, adapting them. And not forgetting to add some fresh bread, preferably thick, toasted and buttered. But that is not the whole, that is not the recipe, that is not soup. There’s more to soup than liquid.

Take some invitations and gather a table round. Add a dash of greetings, kisses, hugs and handshakes. Add some humour and wine, fold in strands of conversation and pursue a line of two. One must listen between the lines. rejoice with those doing well, hold those who are struggling, engage the quiets ones. Encourage, communicate, celebrate. Be present. That’s by whole soup.

Vegetables washed
pungent spices bathe the air
conversation grows.

Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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August 29, 2022 · 2:21 pm

Letting The Gates Open – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

“Life is without meaning. You bring meaning to it.” Joseph Campbell

Letting The Gates Open

Making meaning is the gift of myth,
an imagineering of shifted shapeness,
a wasabi like future of inlaid redemption,
minds made and unmade as refolding clay.

An imagineering of shifted shapeness,
the undressing of facades and stereotypes,
minds made and unmade as refolding clay,
remoulding actions as arcade possibilities.

The undressing of facades and stereotypes,
letting the gates open so the horses can bolt,
remoulding actions as arcade possibilities,
creating fluid arcs of understanding.

Letting the gates open so the horses can bolt,
a wasabi like future of inlaid redemption,
creating fluid arcs of understanding,
making meaning is the gift of myth.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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July 27, 2022 · 2:07 pm

The Ear Of The Heart – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Lillian is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write a poem choosing a name from a Ben and Jerry’s list of ice-creams. For more info follow the link below:

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Make Mine A Double-dipper

The name I chose to use in my poem is: Miz Jelena’s Sweet Potato Pie.

Photo: shutterstock.com from http://www.publicdomainpictures.net

“For a word to be spoken, there must be silence. Before, and after.” Ursula K. Le Guin

The Ear Of The Heart

Not just for Miz Jelena's sweet potato pie
is her path well trod, or her sweet-peas
admired, or her door wide to the world,
such wonderful things are not the sum,
it is the certainty of being heard,
Miz Jelena has a heart ear that holds 
all of you in the telling.



Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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July 18, 2022 · 1:09 pm

Change That Diet – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: wandiprogress.com.au Wandi Landcare Group in action.

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” Arthur Ashe


Change That Diet

Yelling red hoarse at the news,
wrenching gut papers shredded,
blog rolling, twitter clicking,
opinions strewn and spewed,
ambulance delays, police inaction,
political corruptions a constant,
wars, safety, guns, policies,
hanging expectations on solutions
while lakes and rivers dry before
our eyes.

Crime waves roll over cities as
heat waves arise uncommonly,
race, place, identity, all ignored,
only money, that old time religion
killing everything in its wake,
step back, just a little, change 
that diet, leave the negative 
behind, harness the good and
build a future quietly, softly,
a little at a time.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️



Note: there's nothing wrong with being informed and keeping up with the news, but if it is brining you down and it is all you do, you need to get out more.

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June 28, 2022 · 3:12 pm

Freeing Gilead – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found at inclusioncounts.com

“How fast we take our steps does not define the way.” Laura Chouette

Freeing Gilead

The answers are not behind us,
they are rarely in front of us,
even with an open door,
we must search the fringes,
seek the shadows and ledges
of our daily experiences
for the knowing of ways
that heal the deepest wounds,
when the infection isn't singular
we can work together to draw
the poison wherever it lurks
between us.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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May 23, 2022 · 3:35 pm

I Seek All – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Creative Vix on pexels.com

“Culture is more often a source of conflict than of synergy.” Geert Hofstede

I Seek All

Some of us sit uneasily with tribes
while ever searching for one,
dreaming of taking our place,
belonging to a picture of life,
striving to fit the wrong shape,
feeling dejected when all efforts
fail to improve visibility or whatever
expectations we hold,
I no longer seek tribes,
those fleeting vessels of angst,
I seek all sentient beings in
encounter.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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May 22, 2022 · 3:16 pm

The Essence Of Being – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Lao Tzu

The Essence Of Being

Thinking is over rated,
time to put Descartes aside,
I am not my thoughts 
though my thoughts are mine,
they are not my sum,
thoughts come and go while
some reside, but the essence
of being is being love,
love is the measure,
love is the way and,
by love I am.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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April 14, 2022 · 5:11 pm

The Remembrist – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Image: found on pinterest.com

“I mistrust all systematizers and avoid them. The will to a system is a lack of integrity.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The Remembrist 

I'm trying to remember the 
moment we lost connection,
begging the question, what 
are we the product of and, 
how ever did we outsource 
our lives, virtualising our
experiences?

Lately I've been trying to imagine 
myself in a different world, but 
the problem remains steadfast,
and all the while our lives are
missing, our faces false advertising.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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January 26, 2022 · 10:12 pm

Whose Time Has Come – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: From acmstravel.com a view of the Whanganui River, NZ which in 2012 was recognised in NZ law as a natural entity with legal rights equivalent to humans. This followed on from the first landmark case in 2008 in Ecuador when the Vilcabama River was protected by granting it rights at law.

“Nature cannot be seen solely as a resource to be owned, exploited and profited from.” Suzanne Benally

Whose Time Has Come

Global never thinks local,
only to its own lusted desires,
but among the suited ties of
the mean sx landing barges
comes the conscienced 
resistance of the locals, 
whose time has come to speak
of cousins as rivers and trees,
whose rights are sacred and
who now wait to sue the suits
off miners who would euthanase 
every breath of life in an irony
of futures doomed.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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