Category Archives: Literature

January 20, 2021 · 5:38 pm

Refuses To Limit – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Merril is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write about connection.

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Connections

Image: found on huffingtonpost.co.uk

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.” Rollo May

Refuses To Limit

How to frame a conversation that
refuses to limit either of us to the
darkest corners of our words that
run past our meaning, that will not
rest in painful constrictions of 
small words, or weighted by some 
abstraction, smothers the possibility
of speaking without words, to 
silently hold the other in their eyes,
to search the crowd and weep with 
their faces, rejoice with them, feel 
their deepest selves, to understand
the breath we take together in all
its fragility, to simply know.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 13, 2019 · 3:09 pm

She Will Rise – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – To Market, To Market

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Photo: guardian.ng

 

She Will Rise

The cold air exposed her breath
and what was seen in the sea of stalls
was also felt through her body
while her table
at exorbitant cost,
considering her income,
was a painfully hired space
for her and her baby,
working nights in the city
and days plying her trade
in this flea market,
she gets by,
many look,
while others deride her hard work,
her precious beads of delight,
that some eschew
too few embrace,
but one day soon she will rise
from this place of vague existence.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul, pvcann.com

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September 7, 2018 · 3:25 pm

Precarious Soul

Rash – Word of the Day

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Photo: times highereducation.com

 

 

Precarious Soul

The storm raged all night in my heart,
and it felt as if the very breath of me
had escaped as if a deflated balloon.
And I stood on the precipice of rejection,
the cracks in my soul so precarious
I might fall into myself.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Paul,

pvcann.com

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June 24, 2018 · 4:23 pm

Time Will Tell

Epiphany – Word of the Day

 

Gillian Welch: Time the Revelator

Aha!

That’s my simple explanation to anyone who wants to understand an epiphany, the moment something is revealed, when the penny drops or the dots are connected. The classic reference is, of course to the series of revelations of Jesus as Messiah in the gospel, and hence the liturgical season of Epiphany to celebrate these revelations.

It was taken and used in literature as personal revelation in matters from the mundane to the profound. The mystic Julian of Norwich, who wrote her “Revelations of Divine Love” in 1395 (reputedly the first known published work by a woman) reveals a series of spiritual epiphanies, perhaps the most often quoted being: “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” A profound awareness.

James Joyce polularised the term in his autobiographical work Stephen Hero and in Portrait of the Arrtist as a Young Man, in which he would refer to times when he’d had a deep realisation, or when something manifested more clearly to him.

I really like how Gillian Welch plays with the idea of time as a revelator (see video), as the giver of epiphany, how living and engaging, reflecting and looking back, helps make sense of change and life now. Whereas for Dylan God is the revelator and judge, for Welch Time is. For Welch, time will tell!

I think my first epiphany was that I was part of the fabric of the universe. I freaked my parents out when I was four, I was regularly caught sitting on the window ledge of the second story window where my bedroom was. But I couldn’t help it, the moon and the stars captivated me and held me prisoner in wonderment. Going backwards, I later discovered the world when a maternal uncle gave me a large world wall map to gaze on and realised there was so much that constituted life. And incidentally, I think that order of learning has deeply affected me, because I go to the universe first and the world second.

More recently epiphany is related to my meditation and the contemplative. I never cease to be amazed, even by dew drops on grass! And I’m strangely warmed and satisfied by that.

The whole point of epiphany is that it comes to you, you can’t make it, but you can facilitate it – simply by taking time, time to observe, to engage, to listen, to feel, to receive, to attend.

Paul,

pvcann.com

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June 4, 2018 · 2:15 pm

Ramble On

Gallivant – Word of the Day

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I’ve travelled and rambled a little, but I would say as Bilbo said to Frodo (and later Frodo recalls it) “It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”  J.R.R. Tolkien (Fellowship of the Ring)

But unless you go out that door there will be no adventure. One doesn’t need to ramble far for adventure, there’s enough going on in every local community to constitute an adventure of sorts. Adventure isn’t always about excitement or danger, it can be enterprise, chance, venture, to take a risk.

For some the risk is maybe even just going out the door, or, having to talk to people, taking the time, travelling even a short distance, being out of your comfort zone, going into new experiences … but to think, there may be conversations, sights, colours, wildlife, history, events, or the beauty of solitude in nature, whatever the outcome, there’s always an experience to be had. It may not be earth shattering or exciting, but yet it may well be profound. And, does it matter where you’re swept off to? Predictability and over thinking are kindred spirits to ruts. A true adventure has to have surprise and spontaneity somewhere in it, and you can’t plan that.

But isn’t that life? Life is an adventure (that’s my experience), life is an invitation to ramble on, you can’t nail the whole of your life down, you can’t control every day of every year. We need to open the doors of our hearts and minds, even to just leave the window of opportunity open to entice us. Strangely enough, all the ifs and buts become a faint memory once you’re out the door.

The tales of the “Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” are all about rambling, adventuring gallivanting, but also a tale about life itself, as most fiction is. The band Led Zeppelin were steeped in Tolkien. If you peruse their lyrics there are phrases from Tolkien all over their original works. But the emphasis is always metaphysical, always rambling, always love and adventure, hence the song “Ramble On” on their 1969 album Led Zeppelin 2. Below is a sound track of that song where the accoustic guitars have been separated out – so no heavy guitar on this one, and the lyrics come to the fore (simple as they are).

Ramble on!

Paul,

pvcann.com

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