Category Archives: environment

August 19, 2019 · 1:35 pm

The Mindless Frog – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: wakingtimes.com

 

“As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they please …”  Noam Chomsky

The Mindless Frog

On a cold winters day
I was prim on my lily pad
awaiting a princess to
plant her lips on me,
an average fantasy of transformation
by any normal standard and
I was so surprised when instead a
man carefully picked me up,
fed me and placed me
in some nice tepid water
where I thawed and relaxed,
stretching and luxuriating,
I was so unconcerned as
my flesh started to loosen and
gently peel from my bones
rising to the surface where
the beady eyes of the man
continued to watch expectantly,
too late I realised
that princes consume.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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August 15, 2019 · 1:05 pm

I Wish I Hadn’t – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Grass – RDP Thursday

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Photo: theweeklynabe.com

“I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour.”  Bill Bryson

I Wished I Hadn’t

I took myself for a walk today
and I came to a little park,
the sun was out,
the grass was shining,
so I thought I’d sit for a while,
but as I looked,
and I wished I hadn’t for
all was not as it seemed,
a child surrendered
its lunch to the grass,
while several dogs weighed less,
there were tea bags and wrappers,
beer slops and bottles,
so I went to the mall instead.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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August 8, 2019 · 4:56 pm

Attention – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Hello

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Photo: http://www.istockphoto.com

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”  Mary Oliver

 

Attention

All the world is hello,
like a lover flirtatiously smiling
drawing attention indiscreetly
all red shoes and lipstick,
just wanting some loving attention.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

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July 18, 2019 · 3:38 pm

Dying For The Fiction – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Climate Crisis

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Cartoon found at sites.duke.edu

 

“The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction.”  Rachel Carson

 

 

Dying For The Fiction

They filled in the wetlands and gave me a house
of dreams filled with death,
and we cut down the trees that gave us life
that we might see the views of the city lights,
in a panic we scorched everything in the
belief that we must perpetuate production,
the very poison that kills all,
while giving happiness in spades of plastic that
smothers reality and makes us long for more
fictions that soothe and inspire
how self murder is so healthy for us,
I awoke this morning to find
my limbs removed,
my lungs cut down
and plastic in my gut,
I am Eco,
I am dying
for the fiction.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul, pvcann.com

 

 

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July 2, 2019 · 2:41 pm

Dignity Reclaimed – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Reclaim – VJs Weekly Challenge

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Photo: Bunbury Wetlands, some kind soul had waded into the shallows to extract this shopping trolley which was rusting and missing some of its sides. Every year when the water level drops the Friends of the wetlands go in and remove the rubbish dumped there.

 

 

Dignity Reclaimed

As summer wore on
the lake became brazen
shedding her cloak,
naked,
desperate,
revealing her blemishes and scars
symbols of modern decline,
cans, bags, and a shopping trolley,
a cage of slavery now enslaved
encrusted and rusted,
yet easily excised,
and the lake,
her dignity reclaimed
by winter’s refreshing rains.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul, pvcann.com

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May 27, 2019 · 2:05 pm

Not Finished – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Dominate – Word of the Day

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Photo: smithsonianmag.com  The surface of Mars.

The irony is, but of course, that there are plans to colonise Mars at enormous cost to study its physical qualities, albeit, why it is uninhabitable. One of my private and sobering fantasies, is that we were already there and have wrecked it!

 

Not Finished

Like gluttons
we landed in paradise
and stripped it bare,
then we spied another
called earth,
we’re not finished yet
but we’re nearly done.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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May 22, 2019 · 5:15 pm

Too Many – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Unhappy

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Photo: Lake Brown, just below Eaglestone Rock (Nungarin), just as the sun is setting, the moon visible. Lake Brown has always been a natural salt lake, but human impact has exacerbated the salinity and balance of the lake’s eco-system.

 

Too Many

I walked the lake around today and
said a prayer for the one tree who
had sighed its last lying in the midden
of our lust and sorrows, lachrymose,
I have said too many prayers of late.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul, pvcann.com

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May 22, 2019 · 10:31 am

Redeemed – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Ekphrastic Poems – dVerse Poets – Mary Frances

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Art Work: Mary Frances via dVerse Poets.

 

Redeemed

A road of bones
this skull and leaves
dry and brittle under foot,
yet life appears
summoned from beyond,
caring not for our trivial days,
you bring a message of repair
to less despair of dying trees,
as you lie in state
amidst their aged fruit,
to look to better days
of green and life,
but you care not to stay
you’ve said your piece,
and so you fade before me,
amidst that tragic fruit,
redeemed.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul, pvcann.com

22 Comments

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April 26, 2019 · 3:47 pm

Late – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Marvelous – Word of the Day

Video: Bunbury Wetland (erroneously called Big Swamp), a lone swan from one of the pairs of Black Swans. There were two cygnets hatched this year, a truly marvellous sight.

 

Late

We put a fence round Eden with a biodome,
we’re saving seeds in Aleppo and London,
using less plastic
reducing emissions
cloning sheep of all possible things,
nature is stunning
a rich trove of beauty
yet late have we shut that door,
our destructive ways
speak like Narcissus in spades,
Mother is wounded
she’s on the run
with nowhere to turn
nowhere to go,
Nature is stunning
but mammon is pretty,
our bed is made.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul, pvcann.com

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January 30, 2019 · 9:00 pm

The Question – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Upside Down – VJs Weekly Challenge

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Photo: pixabay.com

 

The Question

I saw a question
on the side of the road,
a struggling plant,
gasping, calling for water,
and none to be found,
save for the discarded plastic bottle
of nature’s spring water,
resolutely shut,
lying nearby,
self-absorbed,
and totally unaware
of the gift it withholds,
selfishly smug,
secure in its expense.
Will the plastic ever care,
now that it has so cleverly seduced us
and shut us against our very own life?

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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