Category Archives: Economics

August 21, 2020 · 3:08 pm

Shouting Underwater – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Linda at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night where ewe are invited to post a poem of choice. dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Photo: http://www.stockunlimited.com

“Any government that places profit before people is pure evil.” Suzy Kassem 

Shouting Underwater

Those babble mouths,
always a crooked apologia for
crack cocaine capitalism's
endemic asset stripping
dealers who're always
powdering their own noses,
yet always the stench of decay
seeps through everywhere,
gaslighting the streets,
curbing panaceas
left, right and centre,
and I feel as if I'm
on fire and shouting
underwater.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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August 16, 2020 · 3:02 pm

Something’s Off – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: publicdomainpictures.net

“Instead of politicians, let the monkeys govern the countries; at least they will steal only the bananas!” Mehmet Murat Ildan

Something's Off

It's about the money but the money's 
just a symptom of what lies rotting at 
the core of the apple and no amount of 
spin will sweeten that fruit or make 
fresh that which is fermented and still
we force ourselves to believe it and 
consume it as if it is ambrosia out of 
this world and soon the rot will mould
and consume itself making it even 
harder to swallow but until we stop
believing in the emperor's decaying 
core we will never taste the promised
land.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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August 10, 2020 · 3:16 pm

Suddenly – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: pixabay.com

“All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.” Friedrich Nietzsche 

Suddenly

Suddenly truth broke out on a 
spring morning laden with the
warmth of promise forecast
centuries ago by the hopeful
prophets before they became
adults stuck in over insured 
futures of predictable plastic 
living suicide and, 
just as suddenly,
people discovered themselves 
and each other.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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July 8, 2020 · 3:07 pm

Their Humanity – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: thinglink.com Still from the 1968 musical ‘Oliver twist’

“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.” Dom Helder Camara

Their Humanity

Why do you fear that
helping another will cheat 
you of all that you dream
for yourself, and that your small
piece will be taken by those less 
deserving of their humanity,
that it takes away your veneer of
appearing caring when you give
so little and the self-righteous
judgements you offer, that their
poverty is clearly deserved, and
besides, it is your superpower to 
divvy droplets of coin like cheap 
salvation so long as someone is
watching your performance?
Why do you imagine that the
world is just for you?

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: Following Camara’s famous comment I note that it is still the case that it is easy to pillory or dismiss people who become concerned for the plight of others as ‘leftist’, ‘communist’, ‘socialist’, ‘social democrat’, ‘democrat’, ‘Christian democrat’, Greens and etc., etc.

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July 1, 2020 · 2:34 pm

It’s Time To Light A Fire – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: bbc.com

“A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.” Guy Fawkes

It's Time To Light A fire

Up on the hill the light recedes
as the western candle dims,
wick ravaged to ill effect,
too frayed to rise again with 
wax beyond plenish once more,
there's a chill wind blowing
and the age is dark,
it's time to light a fire.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 11, 2020 · 1:13 pm

Final Caw – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Corvid – 2020 Weekly Challenge #12

Photo: pixabay.com

“In many traditions, crows are messengers and close attention is paid to their actions.” Robert Moss

Final Caw

Alienated
in this swampland feel
of grey desolation days
with splintered signposts,
where the undertaker 
rests atop with beady eyes
as the emptiness of the
hearse of life rolls on by,
waiting for your final caw
signalling the final door.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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May 16, 2020 · 5:25 pm

We Forgot – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

 

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Photo: http://www.newsclick.in

 

“We abuse the land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong we may begin to use it with love and respect.”  Aldo Leopold

We Forgot

The words dissembled before me,
tumbling down,
my mouth moving,
searching for meaning,
glory in failure,
we forgot beauty,
running after fantasy
coated in soft-tongued speeches,
fetid, like an open sewer
wrapped in a bloody tricolour,
the bunting of martyrs,
fugitives of ourselves
on the parapets of love.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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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January 9, 2020 · 3:32 pm

Meta Carbo – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Let’s Get Elemental

Sarah at dVerse has invited us to write about the elements of the periodic table in whatever creative ways we choose. This is my second go, and this time I’ve chosen Carbon which, being an allotrope, gives us a variety of things, diamonds, coal 😦 , graphite, graphenes, and so on. It is for all occasions, it is a necessary part of forming oxygen, but it is also a major environmental problem too.

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Photo: istock.com

 

“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it”  Robert Swan

 

Meta Carbo

Shining dangle trinket
an all occasion party type,
now retiring like quiet
Albrecht in a pencil thin garret,
sometimes darkly dark, though
more recently sneaky congestion
leaking all around me,
beautiful choking imbalance,
really hot stuff
searing my lungs,
everything,
no more the exchange
nothing can breathe,
leaving now,
disappearing through
a hole in the sky,
until, of course,
I change my carbon life.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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December 20, 2019 · 2:50 pm

How Much? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Word of the Day – hovel

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Photo: pixabay.com

 

“We only have what we give.”  Isabel Allende

How Much?

Am I really my brother-sister’s keeper
that I must set aside something of
myself to lift their burden,
to alter the fortunes of every hovel?
Isn’t this the origin of the retort of anger,
that I must somehow be responsible ,
that I know I dress their plight
in a shame all my own,
sermonising, offering beads for gold,
paralysed by guilt,
always asking, “what can I do?”
but never asking of myself,
“How much is enough?”

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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