Category Archives: Five Lines

November 19, 2021 · 2:18 pm

The Bell Tolls – a Wayra by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Grace is hosting Poetry Form with an invitation to write a Wayra, a short poetry form (five lines 5-7-7-6-8) non-rhyming. The Wayra is a popular form from Peru and Bolivia (you can learn more by clicking on the link to dVerse below).

dVerse Poets – Poetry Form – The Wayra

Photo: Bernhard_Staerck at pixabay.com

“Free yourself from any load that impedes you.” Charmaine J. Forde

The Bell Tolls

Peal a ding, ding, dong,
when the sonorous brass bongs
what do I need to put down,
heavy weight title mine,
suffocating leaden deadweight.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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July 3, 2020 · 3:04 pm

She Dreamed – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: pexels.com

Five Lines

“Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits.” Song of Songs

She Dreamed

Magenta stretched out among the wildflowers,
the sun soaked earth warming deeply,
colourful perfumed senses aroused
while she dreamed her secret garden
only he could tend.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 29, 2020 · 3:10 pm

Weasel Ways – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: pixabay.com A weasel

Five Lines

“Weasel words from mollycoddles will never do when the day demands prophetic clarity from great hearts.” Theodore Roosevelt

Weasel Ways

It was your delicious moment,
a pause in the flow of words and,
like a weasel with an egg, you
sucked the life out of my words
and I faded away.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Note: A Weasel is of the genus Mustela (which includes stoats, polecats, mink, ferrets, otters, wolverines, martins etc.) one of their habits is to suck the contents of an egg leaving the shell behind. In 1900 the term Weasel Words was coined to reflect words that suck the meaning out of other words, e.g. organised chaos, some people say, experts recommend, are all weasel words.

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February 15, 2020 · 2:46 pm

Samaritans – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: kiisfm.iheart.com

“We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.”  Thomas Moore

 

Samaritans

They washed my fetid journey sores with
words of love and such intimate and warm
soothing smiles on their hands, that
to be held in that space without judgement was
so powerful, even the word friends is inadequate.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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February 9, 2020 · 3:20 pm

Then – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

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Photo: pixabay.com

 

“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”  James Baldwin.

Then

What if, for example,
fish swam backwards or the
moon tangoed with Jupiter
and I eclipsed your notions of love,
would you love me then?

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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January 31, 2020 · 2:06 pm

Shadowland – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Destiny

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Photo: flickr.com Robert Couse-Baker

“That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.”  Carl Jung

Shadowland

His inner demons held him in fear and mistrust,
but he dressed them as acceptable monsters
all hidden in the light, but they made their own
spectacular way to the surface of his unaware life
becoming his cruel and real destiny.

©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

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January 18, 2020 · 4:00 pm

Beautiful Advocate – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Beautiful

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Photo: Getty Images. Princess Dianna sitting with amputees, victims of landmines, Angola, 1997. Dianna as many will remember ignited opposition to the use of landmines which resulted in the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty and drew attention to the work of the Halo Trust whose work is clearing mines and advocacy against mines and weapons of war. She had that inner beauty, photos of her shaking hands with lepers, sitting with HIV sufferers, visiting homeless shelters and os on. I’m not a monarchist, but her work was of a different order.

“I’d read the statistics that Angola has the highest percentage of amputees anywhere in the world … that one person in every 333 had lost a limb, most of them through land mine explosions. But that hadn’t prepared me for the reality.”  Dianna Spencer

 

Beautiful  Advocate

So beautiful, those legs, her …
And such a mind, but O her heart,
her beauty drew the cameras,
merely a stage for the inner beauty
of her compassion for the world.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

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January 11, 2020 · 3:47 pm

Of Vulnerability – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Afraid

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Photo: independent.ie

 

“Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.”  Neil Postman

 

Of Vulnerability

Not crawling or slithers, lead or blade,
neither fist nor foe really matter
in the grandest of schemes,
it is more the inner, the self, the real,
of vulnerability we are afraid.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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December 30, 2019 · 5:09 am

Life Became Him – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

5 Lines – Exchanges

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Photo: Auschwitz 1, the former Polish army barracks which the SS commandeered as a prison for Polish army officers, Poles, Jews, subversives, and others. This is a substantial complex of brick multi-story blocks, unlike Auschwitz 2, which was mostly wooden blocks. I found the place sombre and still, a place of  confronting horror. This is the place where the Catholic priest and subversive Maximilian Kolbe exchanged places with a young Jewish man because he was a husband and father and had a future to live. The commandant agreed to the exchange. Kolbe was starved to death, although he was given a mercy injection after three weeks.

 

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.”  Elie Wiesel

Life Became Him

Quietly he ventured an offer to
the commandant lusting for reprisal,
one young father not ready for some version of heaven,
and persuaded, the commandant exchanges the two,
the priest is starved in the doorway of eternity.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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