Category Archives: meditation

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 ®️

35 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, life, meditation, mindfulness, poem, quote

Tagged as , ,

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 ®

20 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, life, meditation, poem, quote

Tagged as , ,

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 ®

45 Comments

Filed under awareness, life, meditation, Pantoum, poem, quote

Tagged as , , , ,

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 ®

18 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, life, meditation, mindfulness, passion, poem, quote

Tagged as , ,

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 ®

31 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, Free Verse, meditation, mindfulness, nature, passion, poem, quote

Tagged as , ,

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 ®

27 Comments

Filed under awareness, bush walking, ecology, Free Verse, meditation, nature, poem, quote

Tagged as , ,

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 ®

17 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, life, meditation, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , ,

May 29, 2021 · 1:56 pm

When Have We? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo by Rachel Claire from Pexels

“Solitude is a fount of healing ….” Carl Jung

When Have We?

How does one receive silence in its absence,
when we have forgotten what it is like 
to fold into our deepest self and 
touch something that opens us to 
everything there is and, without holding, 
hold the cosmos, our heart of hearts,
overcome with feeling to the point of not
speaking words of inadequate meaning 
that fall like fruit premature, pretty,
but o so sour to the ear who knows.
When have we been so possessed of that 
silence beyond silence?

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights reserved ®

14 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, meditation, poem, quote

Tagged as , , ,

April 27, 2021 · 1:58 pm

The Present Moment – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Frank is hosting the Haibun (prose + haiku) with an invitation to write about the present moment.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – The Present Moment

Photo: Patrizia08, pixabay.com

“If you are depressed, you are living in the past. If you are anxious, you are living in the future. But, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.” Lao Tzu

The Present Moment

If I try to, I cannot reach back into all my yesterdays and reclaim them. And, even if I could, all that I would achieve is a reconstruction of days as perfect past moments. So I cannot reach back and hold any moment as it was. Besides I don't want to, the past is the past and best left as formative memory for better or worse.

The future eludes me in smoke and mirrors, the pathway is unclear, no plan is foolproof. Besides, if I could see even just a little ahead I would be adjusting my approach towards the perfect experience.

The most abiding feeling I have is of the fleeting present moment. That moment, the blinking of an eye, the moment between the inward and outward breath, which passes so quickly. These moments come and go and I have learned to treasure them before they slip into yesterday. But, to be in the present moment, I have to be present. 


under the branches
my inward and outward breath
present moment held.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

35 Comments

Filed under Haibun, Haiku, life, meditation, mindfulness, quote

Tagged as , , ,

February 23, 2021 · 1:57 pm

To Go – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse De is hosting Quadrille with an invitation to use some form of the word Go!

dVerse Poets – Quadrille – Going, Going, Gone Poeming

Photo: Sam Carter, at unsplash.com

“Without reflection we go blindly on our way ….” Margaret J. Wheatley

To Go

To be or to go,
do I need to go,
do I want to go
anywhere at all,
the mountains in the 
distance called me to 
their high places, but I 
preferred to go to the 
valleys of my heart
and dwell in presence.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

43 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, meditation, mindfulness, poem, Quadrille, quote

Tagged as , , , , ,