Category Archives: ecology

January 28, 2023 · 2:10 pm

Now To Sing A New Song – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Maruf_Rahman at pixabay.com Flood in Bangladesh

“With considerable justice, Bangladesh’s leading climate scientist says that ‘These migrants should have the right to move to the countries from which all these greenhouses are coming.'” Noam Chomsky 

Now To Sing A New Song

Walking ever so softly across life
listening to the voices of trees
asking us to live for all things,
these are important questions
interwoven,
predicate, 
subject,
object,
action,
follows a pattern,
ends with dilated hesitations,
why should I inhabit more than necessary,
consuming my neighbours?
I weep for the anthropic scene,
time to change our view of 
recalcitrant history,
never to repeat,
now to sing a new song.


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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November 30, 2022 · 1:48 pm

And Then There Were None – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

#2022 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

Day 30 30.11.22 The final day.

Prompt: And [blank]

And Then There Were None

Yesterday was the tomorrow I delayed,
I confided this to our friend the frog
who had inhabited our pond these past months,
I spoke of grand gestures,
of lights turned off,
cloth and paper bags,
rain water,
solar power,
all for the good of the land,
but bought that item we needed,
so much plastic and foam,
and when I returned to the pond,
the frog had gone,
and then there were none.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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November 7, 2022 · 3:19 pm

I’m Not Kicking Back -a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

#2022 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

Day 7 7.11.22

Prompt: Adaptation 

I'm Not Kicking Back

The future can no longer be held in the past,
no room for denial now
this drama is nonfiction,
times have changed,
my lawnmower has less employ
but I'm not kicking back,
not until my garden is water wised,
or my soap ceases to kill fish,
the templar in me crusades
against the plastic scourge 
that has evangelised my life.
Who would have thought
I'd be conserving water,
checking labels,
sorting bins,
reducing travel,
whatever it takes to reduce
my impact,
my footprint,
my legacy,
protecting sentient life
on this rare earth.
I can't undo the past,
but I can do the future,
I'm taking a darwinian line,
adapt or perish,
demise is not my game.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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August 17, 2022 · 2:46 pm

When Water Dies – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Sarah is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write about one of the four elements: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind. I chose water.

dVerse Poets – Poetics – The Four Elements

Photo: Taken the day after a winter storm at Cape Leeuwin.

“They both listened silently to the water, which to them was no just water, but the voice of life, the voice of Being, the voice of perpetual becoming.” Hermann Hesse 

When Water Dies

The swash and slap of the limpid roll
for languid lolling in a temperate zone,
as flounder flap and take the bait
now unaccustomed to the oaken creak,
a gift from the depths suppered for two,
I recall the taste of salted lips that
burned even as I licked them so,
the smells are joy though my nostrils flare,
and I catch your weeds of no compare,
and my line is tangled, but without you 
I cannot bear the grief of dryness
that your death will bring,
and so I cup my hands that I may
drink one more draught of your 
wet love.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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August 2, 2022 · 3:06 pm

The Whole View – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Merril is hosting Haibun Monday with an invitation to look up, and write about the experience.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – Look Up

Photo: Bluff Knoll, first you have to go down before you start to climb up the mount, here covered in fog and rain. This was a great days climb and well worth the experience.

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.” Maya Angelou 

The Whole View

My experiences of looking up are experiences of momentarily leaving myself, placing myself in the cosmos, letting go any singular rootedness and finding community with all things and all beings, animate and inanimate, rocks and trees, mountains, the sky and all it holds. I don't feel diminished by the bigness of it all, I feel included, and I feel moved to include all things. In that sense of acceptance comes a deep sense of harmony and belonging for me.

To look at the grandeur of a tree and trace its linear circuitry, to reach out to the sky and know its infinity, to view the mountain and feel its strength and presence, are deeply moving for me. Looking up at this mountain reminds I am not the centre of life, not even my own, I am simply a part of the whole that seeks life together. To look up at this mountain is a reminder that I have no control over it and no need to do so. The call of this mountain is to take pleasure in its gift of diverse experiences that enable me to know a little more about life and who I am and a lot of letting go and not knowing.

Looking up the mount
I saw the heavens opened
jasmine tea goes cold 


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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July 30, 2022 · 3:09 pm

The Moment -a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: plasticsoupfoundation.org

“A very faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behaviour as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.” E.O. Wilson

The Moment

The moment between asking and answering a question
is the moment of significant weight waiting to shift,
one way or another to fall or to rise, to the left or the right,
and in the moment identifying our own game of denial.

Is the moment of significant weight waiting to shift 
merely a trope of the human imaginative longing,
one way or another to fall or to rise, to the left or the right,
or is it perhaps a significant axial irruption in our midst?

Merely a trope of the human imaginative longing,
suggesting that there is no salvific moment beyond dreams,
or is it perhaps a significant axial irruption in our midst,
at best our childish myths deserted our desperate need.

Suggesting that there is no salvific moment beyond dreams,
one way or another to fall or to rise, to the left or the right,
at best our childish myths deserted our desperate need,
the moment between asking and answering a question.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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July 17, 2022 · 2:03 pm

Doing What I Can – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

“You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.” Tom Hiddleston

Doing What I Can

The garden is many things and
not least a teacher in the art of life,
the spider building patiently in a breeze,
ants forming lines of communication,
birds gathering fibres for nesting
one beak-full at a time over a morning,
the apricot tree still letting go its
autumn gold so slowly in the rain,
me pulling weeds methodically
so that energy is conserved,
all the while reminding myself
that life is all about taking time,
doing what I can, when I can,
taking small steps and rejoicing 
in the little things.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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June 4, 2022 · 3:26 pm

In The Betweenness – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Skippy Rocks, Cape Leeuwin, one of my favourite places.

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Anne Frank

In The Betweenness

In the betweenness of sea and shore
there was an ear that listened as a door,
to all that ebbed and flowed along the way,
the ins and outs of the long trodden bay.

In the edgeness of tree and plain,
there was a forest tree loving rain,
miming philosophies of significance,
drawing attention to her hopeful dance.

In the drop between peak and valley
lies a cave of eyes looking to rally,
the emergence of a long held dream,
many answers to fateful anthropocene.

In the imperceptible gap between fear and love,
swims a peaceful olive branch bearing dove,
who arcs across the world rather than fly,
casting spells of healing for us to ply.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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May 26, 2022 · 4:22 pm

Such An Interesting Question – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: anncapictures at pixabay.com

“When everything is connected to everything else, for better or for worse, everything matters.” Bruce Mau

Such An Interesting Question

Such an interesting question,
what is it that makes me different,
how am I seperate yet connected 
to all that lives and breathes,
have I even really thought about this,
and if I do, what difference would it 
make for the future of all things around me,
what could possibly change?


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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February 2, 2022 · 11:42 pm

Defining Moment – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Image: from therugbygroup.sandler.com

“The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” Dante Alighieri 

Defining Moment

We are never so defined as by our crises,
the irruptions of pressure force change,
suddenly malaise transforms to purpose,
individualism rediscovers its malignancy.

The irruptions of pressure force change,
denial is the most useless safety helmet,
individualism rediscovers its malignancy,
slowly but surely we leave our cocoons.

Denial is the most useless safety helmet
while ignorance is the tightest kevlar,
slowly but surely we leave our cocoons,
the dividing line of transition now drawn.

While ignorance is the tightest kevlar,
suddenly malaise transforms to purpose,
the dividing line of transition now drawn,
we are never so defined as by our crises.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

Note: in this I am deeply influenced by Jean-Paul Sartre’s dictum that the French were never so free as when Germany occupied France – meaning that it suddenly gave purpose, called forth identity and action.

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