Category Archives: meditation

December 16, 2022 · 2:52 pm

In My Springtime – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Grace is hosting Meeting the Bar with an invitation to write a poem in the Zen style. For more detail and examples please follow the link below.

dVerse Poets – MTB – Zen Poetry

“When the body and mind are at peace, all things appear as they are: perfect, complete, lacking nothing.” Dogen

In My Springtime

I saw a road and 
I set out on its journey,
seeking the songs of magpies,
a spring soliloquy of life.

In the walking
the road was not a road,
the journey was not a journey,
there were no songs of magpies.

A little further and
the road was a road again,
the journey was mine and I 
began to understand the songs of magpies.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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November 15, 2022 · 12:48 pm

Letting Go My Thoughts – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

#2022 November PAD Chapbook Challenge

Day 15. 15.11.22

Prompt: write a thoughtful and/or thoughtless poem.

Letting Go My Thoughts

When I finally unpack the weekly shop,
so many different things I
put them all in their rightful places,
and then I close the cupboard doors,
sometimes with a sigh,
not resignation,
more a sense of anticipation.

As the candle flickers shadowing the room,
I close the door of my mind
having put aside all the stuff of the day,
and centered,
I repeat my word,
softly letting go of my thoughts
moving with the great tide.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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August 2, 2022 · 3:06 pm

The Whole View – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Merril is hosting Haibun Monday with an invitation to look up, and write about the experience.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – Look Up

Photo: Bluff Knoll, first you have to go down before you start to climb up the mount, here covered in fog and rain. This was a great days climb and well worth the experience.

“Everything in the universe has a rhythm, everything dances.” Maya Angelou 

The Whole View

My experiences of looking up are experiences of momentarily leaving myself, placing myself in the cosmos, letting go any singular rootedness and finding community with all things and all beings, animate and inanimate, rocks and trees, mountains, the sky and all it holds. I don't feel diminished by the bigness of it all, I feel included, and I feel moved to include all things. In that sense of acceptance comes a deep sense of harmony and belonging for me.

To look at the grandeur of a tree and trace its linear circuitry, to reach out to the sky and know its infinity, to view the mountain and feel its strength and presence, are deeply moving for me. Looking up at this mountain reminds I am not the centre of life, not even my own, I am simply a part of the whole that seeks life together. To look up at this mountain is a reminder that I have no control over it and no need to do so. The call of this mountain is to take pleasure in its gift of diverse experiences that enable me to know a little more about life and who I am and a lot of letting go and not knowing.

Looking up the mount
I saw the heavens opened
jasmine tea goes cold 


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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April 30, 2022 · 3:16 pm

And Stopped – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Anastasia Lashkevich on pexels.com

“Almost everything will work if you unplug it for a few minutes … including you.” Anne Lamott

And Stopped

You can keep going,
you really can,
sweating long days,
wringing out your energy,
defeating your body,
pushing,
pushing,
pushing uphill,
against the tide,
against the wind,
the clock always ticking,
mind racing circles,
circles racing minds,
total confusion reigns,
pushing we go,
but, what if
we went anti-clockwise,
wore underwear on our head,
turned down slow street,
blew bubbles,
tapped balloons,
did a handstand in the rain,
laughed,
sat,
and stopped pushing?


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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December 2, 2021 · 3:55 pm

This Trick – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Kalayanayahaluwo at pixabay.com

“By experience we find out a short way by a long wandering.” Roger Ascham

This Trick

This trick, which is so startling,
a curiosity without answers,
my greatest reason for hope,
the ever developing question,
a gift of discovery to share,
to sit and be unfathomed in
unrestrained meanders free
of encumbered expectations,
a life unfastened, ready to be
explored as a new future. 


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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November 26, 2021 · 2:25 pm

Something – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Mish is hosting Open Link Night – posting our own choice.

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Photo: Devanath at pixabay.com

“Real awakening comes with an inherent sense of integrity.” Adyashanti

Something

Something came out of me largely dark,
the success of a poultice of intentions,
avoiding, of course, any hemlock or such,
an ending far too premature for the journey.

The success of a poultice of intentions
and is restricted only by somatic fears,
an ending far too premature for the journey
should fear be allowed to take centre stage.

And is restricted only by somatic fears
where the body lays and lies so innocently
should fear be allowed to take centre stage,
would my centre hold in glorious duality?

Where the body lays and lies so innocently,
avoiding, of course, any hemlock or such,
would my centre hold in glorious duality,
something came out of me darkly large.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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October 30, 2021 · 2:45 pm

For One Brief Glimpse – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found on pinterest.com

“Then stirs the feeling infinite, so felt in solitude, where we are least alone.” Lord Byron

For One Brief Glimpse

The ambered silence of sun's departure a
most glorious death the colour of woven
meditation rising from the russet humus of
solitude's joyful farewell, life's tributary
offering pause for breath along the plane
of letting-go the bubble and babble of 
fakery, prostituting the real for one brief
glimpse of an unmemed self.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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October 11, 2021 · 2:57 pm

Nature Reflecting – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Oak Park, a wetland reserve between Goomalling and Wongan Hills.

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of things.” Henry Miller (Probably riffing on Marcel Proust’s comment)

Nature Reflecting

Nature took a photograph
and held it steady for me to see
how water is contemplative,
reflecting what it sees in its
moments of undistracted, centred, 
stillness, embracing the beauty of
all its surrounds, holding the sacred 
space of song and winter's leafy
bounty, that I might rejoice in the
conversation we subsequently
engaged with deep, silent passion.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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July 28, 2021 · 2:51 pm

Sitting With Nature – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Hakea trifurcata found along Lesmurdie Brook, if you’re not taking time and looking you will miss it.

“There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature ….” Rachel Carson

Sitting With Nature

To sit
is to still, to see, to be
settled in connection
with all that is present,
feeling the space before you
as you reach out and touch
with all your senses wide open.

To sit
is to still, to see, to be
accepted in this moment
by all that desires to be
present to to you in your
quiet acceptance of the
generosity of this shared space 

To sit
is to still, to see, to
become part of all that is,
and return to your centre,
slowing down and listening in 
to the rhythms of life, that you 
might know yourself for the first time.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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June 19, 2021 · 3:25 pm

Dispelled – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash



“Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.” Lao Tzu 

Dispelled 

Cog toothed maniacal, steel eyed
gangle trap, biting the tender throat 
of my hours, viral spreading,
life sapping, dull billboards, those
hypertense sucking creepers of
wounded hearts, in thrice silence
dispelled meekly by the outward 
breath so detached in the soul's
crystal laughter drifting beyond 
the cries of the minute keeper to
a stillness beyond cogito to tears 
of joy raining on the inside. 

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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