Category Archives: environment

February 19, 2020 · 4:20 pm

Shred Of Life – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – To Be A Flower

Linda at dVerse has invited us to write a poem about ourselves as a flower, what flower we do we most identify with? I have chosen a Spider Orchid.

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Photo: One of the several types of Spider Orchid found in Western Australia, Leda Reserve, 2018.

 

“The orchids grow in the woods and they let out their fragrance even if there is no one around to appreciate it.”  Confucius

 

Shred Of Life

Parched,
waiting for the sky to cry
and relieve my desiccated bones,
my rice paper skin,
a tenuous life in
an abundance of aridity,
the land of implausible possibility
where nature threatens its own
fragile existence so that
it won’t be disappointed
should its seed never smile
and celebrate a dawn,
yet here I am,
today, perhaps tomorrow,
a glorious struggle,
full of my colour
in a shred of life.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

 

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February 14, 2020 · 4:13 pm

The Border Collie of the Apocalypse – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Meet the Bar

Amaya at dVerse has invited us to write a poem as one sentence about using three rules: (1) The poem must tell a story in one sentence; (2) the poem must explore the theme of the end of civilisation, and (3) the poem must be improvised; all around the theme of the end of civilisation, while including an embarrassing moment.

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Photo: newshub.co.nz

 

“This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.”  T.S. Eliot

The Border Collie of the Apocalypse

I walked the lake
as the four horsemen gathered,
portent of distance conflated,
the future was here
but we’re handing it back,
too bleak for our eyes to adopt,
but the dog cared not for an ending,
and treated himself to this walk,
the water was lower than ever before,
fewer birds than last year,
and just as I’m contemplating a
parousian finale
the dog found a friend,
and with his lunge
I’m suddenly airborne
split seconds pass me by
and I land with a thud
pride spewed over the path,
I rise with aplomb and
dust off my ending
as the young one
enquires of my health.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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February 2, 2020 · 2:53 pm

Every Time – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

RDP Sunday – Masterpiece

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Photo: from hyperactivz.com and the story “Forty Years Ago This Man Planted A
Tree That Created Amazing Opportunities For His Island” by Lauren Fazackarly –  The Story of Jadav Payeng who began planting trees at sixteen and is still going.

Please note: this is only one story, there are several stories from all over the world of people doing similar feats to greater or lesser extent.

 

“Society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they will never sit in.”  Greek Proverb

Every Time

He settled in the dust of his soul,
the sun beating down and
mocking his every effort
drawing his moisture to his brow,
and yet every day he rose and
without fail, made his way
to his field of dreams
that barren canvas of life’s struggles,
of course, without knowing,
passers-by smiled their condescension,
to them he was an eccentric farmer,
while in his own mind he was an
investment banker, and adventurer, a rebel,
and every time he planted a tree he knew
he was painting a masterpiece
whose abstract nature only he could explain.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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January 30, 2020 · 3:31 pm

Word End – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Regulars

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Photo: prepscholar.com

 

“Wherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for kindness.”  Seneca.

 

Word End

There was a camera crew,
celebrities of minor distinction,
someone pushing a microphone,
all the while hangers-on milled about,
but when the moment came for
words to be beaten into action,
the curious and the beautiful
faded quietly away into the distance,
leaving only the regulars
to do what needed to be done.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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January 26, 2020 · 3:00 pm

I Cry For Them – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Cry

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Photo: found at julianlennon.com   Volunteer firefighter holding a Koala rescued from the fire. The loss of species numbers is devastating and may never be recovered, placing some on the endangered list.

 

“We need a climate and environment policy that is fit for the crisis we’re in.”  Sarah Hanson-Young

I Cry For Them

I did not weep for buildings and things, though I felt
for the plight of evacuees and the vast loss of flora
breaks my heart already so raw, but my tears, once reserved,
now flow in grief for the many animals consumed,
or wounded by this voracious, hungry, friendless fire.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

42 Comments

Filed under Country, environment, Five Lines, Forest, Free Verse, grief, life, nature, poem, quote

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January 22, 2020 · 5:00 pm

The Secret Fantasy – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

 Climate ActivistsdVerse Poets – Poetics – Secrets

Merril at dVerse has invited us to consider writing a poem about secrets.

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Photo: Courier Mail: October 2019, 50 Climate Activists arrested in Melbourne.

“If you tremble with indignation at every injustice, then you are a comrade of mine.”  Che Guevara

The Secret Fantasy

To take a life
even for a cause,
how does one do that with any ease
that it never haunts,
eternally wounding the self,
twisting bowel and heart in
feverish spasms of regret,
causing clever mind plays
of robust justification,
all those greats who advocated
against that dark horror
even baring their own chests to
the chance of bullets
without reproach,
and my life has been persuaded
of that very path, and yet,
there are those days of longing
to come out of Kinshasa,
to leave the mountains of Bolivia,
to wear the beret once again
and to strike at the heart of the
corpulent monster strangling the world.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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January 21, 2020 · 2:24 pm

Redemption Rock -prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poetry – Prosery – The Rock Cries Out

Frank at dVerse has invited us to take the line “The rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, but do not hide your face.” and use in for a prose piece of 144 words.

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Photo: granite outcrop at Billyacatting with a Sheoak making good with a crevice.

 

“The rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, but do not hide your face.”  Maya Angelou

Redemption Rock

We behaved as tourists, observing, consuming, enjoying, but never once holding a sense of belonging or offering something resembling connection even though that space so clearly cried out for it. Now that the tide is turning and ancient forms are slowly taking their leave, we face a new, daunting prospect. Too late to redress the past of our blithe and callow turning away. Indeed, we are no longer at our leisure, no longer possessed of our sure identity, positing who we are and what we might do as if there were no words of opposition or external accountabilities. Gone are our hermetically sealed worlds. We stand at the threshold forced to face ourselves, and even the rock cries out to us today, You may stand upon me, but do not hide your face. Even in the face of death, nature still reconciles us.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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January 19, 2020 · 2:14 pm

Moon Trick – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: pixabay.com

 

“Never give up for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.”  Harriet Beecher Stowe

 

Moon Trick

At five the shore was long,
as long as it would ever be today
or any other day,
and I had not taken the time to
remember this nor to ponder
that it it might remain so,
that the tide might not come back
today or any other day,
that the sand should be divorced,
she the grieving widow
uncovered by her beloved
exposed and bereft,
her tears captive to the sun,
but the moon played her trick
and covered the shore once again,
I left with joy in my heart
knowing that all the tears were gathered.

©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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January 3, 2020 · 4:13 pm

Everyday – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

RDP Friday – Breathe

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Photo: livestrong.com

 

“Something in us is telling us we’re moving too fast, at a pace dictated by machines rather than anything human, and that unless we take conscious measures, we’ll permanently be out of breath.”  Pico Iyer

Everyday

Everyday at waking hoping,
longing for an
uprising of integrity,
a coup of love,
a kindness rebellion,
a riot of charity,
to overwhelm my senses,
and wash me with such gratitude,
that even now
I might breathe again
as I once did
long ago.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com.

25 Comments

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