Category Archives: nature

March 15, 2023 · 3:14 pm

No Temple Or Steeple – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Ingrid is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write about place and space.

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Place and Space

Photo: State Forest at Kirrup

“Nature is not a place to visit. It is home.” Gary Snyder

No Temple Or Steeple

What place
would capture my heart,
make me take off my shoes
and in silence commune?

No temple or steeple 
has ever,
nor memorial,
though all speak in hallowed ways.

Instead I go where the air moves,
where the sun and moon speak,
while the bed I walk upon never sleeps,
and the breeze whispers its translation 
through leaves of understanding.

Here I rejoice in the chorale 
of feathered song,
the trilling brook, and
even granite's imposing, stony silence.

It is here I take off my shoes,
speak in a language of soul,
feel this place deeply
as Lovers are wont to do.


Copyright 2023 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

39 Comments

Filed under awareness, bush walking, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, quote

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 21, 2023 · 1:28 pm

Early Morning Dance – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Linda is hosting the Quadrille (44 words) with an invitation to write a poem using the word music or one of its forms.

dVerse Poets – Quadrille – Music is My Refuge

Photo: Windy Day – Tree Motion, found on YouTube.

“The earth has music for those who listen.” George Santayana

Early Morning Dance

This morning
quite early,
along the familiar path I take,
a breath of wind stirred the
trees together in songs,
lyrical leaves of wattle and gum,
even the eerie note of 
casuarina's dark whisper is a 
music that lifts my body in
rhythmic response.


Copyright 2023 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

22 Comments

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

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 20, 2023 · 1:55 pm

A Sign Of My Own – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Image by Beto from Pixabay 

“He who wonders discovers that this in itself is wonder.” M.C. Escher 

A Sign Of My Own

Pieces of life lay spread before me,
morsels for the wanderer,
flesh, bone, fur
just as the hawk had left them,
scattered,
were they for me?

This sadness of pieces
a sign of my own
fractured self,
scattered,
as a stranger in this place.


Copyright 2023 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

5 Comments

Filed under awareness, bush walking, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, quote

Tagged as , ,

February 11, 2023 · 2:48 pm

As To Depth – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon











Image by Adina Voicu from Pixabay 










“To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves.”  Mahatma Gandhi















As To Depth

Everyone digs differently,
a pathology of sorts,
some stand upright,
others lean in,
some plunge while
others lightly tread 
in the spade.

As to depth
its anyone's guess,
but I always try to go deep
to air the soil  and loosen the sod,
my rhythm is well honed;
I can feel the pull, the turns,
the heave and heft,
in every muscle mine.



Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️ 

			

	
	

		
6 Comments


					
Filed under awareness, Free Verse, Gardening, life, nature, poem, quote

			
Tagged as , , 

			









	


		February 8, 2023 · 3:38 pm	


	
Everything – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		






At dVerse Ingrid is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write about Gift – for more detail follow the link below.





dVerse Poets – Poetics – Hidden Gifts















Photo: State Forrest at Kirup in early spring 2022. Jarrah trees reaching for the sky.










“If we can cultivate a concern for others, keeping in mind the oneness of humanity, we can build a more compassionate world” Dalai Lama










Everything

It turned up one day
completely out of the blue it would seem,
though not in the post,
no envelope or stamp,
there wasn't any wrapping,
nothing to denote its significance,
but there it was 
an indescribable feeling,
a sense of at-onement with all things,
extinguishing either-or relays,
an end to duality,
everything as pure gift.


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️ 

			

	
	

		
27 Comments


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

			
Tagged as , , , , , 

			









	


		February 6, 2023 · 2:42 pm	


	
I Knew – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		











Image by Aleksandr Sobolev from Pixabay










“Any one who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.”  Shira Tamir










I Knew

The clitter-clatter 
sounded like the beginning
of an applause building,
but as I looked up I knew
it was just the dry leaves
skittering and scuttering along,
dancing the car park with the 
playful wind pushing and pulling,
round and round until all was a
swirl of noise and colour,
and when the wind went home,
the leaves rested on the ground 
once more.


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️ 

			

	
	

		
15 Comments


					
Filed under awareness, Free Verse, nature, poem, quote, seasons

			
Tagged as , , 

			









	


		February 2, 2023 · 3:26 pm	


	
Unsettled – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		











Image by Anja from Pixabay 















“The wind shows us how close to the edge we are.” Joan Didion










Unsettled

There are many things that unsettle me,
a gnawing sense of missing a commitment,
the arrival of those letters with a window,
running low on fuel out in the bush,
a visit to the dentist,
but nothing compares to the southerlies
that assault our house
rattling the eaves and raking the roof,
pushing on the glass,
sneaking through door frames,
bending trees,
interrupting sleep,
stealing summer,
surely a wind has other places to visit?


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All rights Reserved ®️ 


			

	
	

		
30 Comments


					
Filed under awareness, environment, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, psychology

			
Tagged as , , 

			









	


		January 28, 2023 · 2:10 pm	


	
Now To Sing A New Song – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		











Photo: Maruf_Rahman at pixabay.com Flood in Bangladesh















“With considerable justice, Bangladesh’s leading climate scientist says that ‘These migrants should have the right to move to the countries from which all these greenhouses are coming.'” Noam Chomsky 















Now To Sing A New Song

Walking ever so softly across life
listening to the voices of trees
asking us to live for all things,
these are important questions
interwoven,
predicate, 
subject,
object,
action,
follows a pattern,
ends with dilated hesitations,
why should I inhabit more than necessary,
consuming my neighbours?
I weep for the anthropic scene,
time to change our view of 
recalcitrant history,
never to repeat,
now to sing a new song.


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️ 


			

	
	

		
14 Comments


					
Filed under awareness, ecology, Economics, environment, Free Verse, injustice, life, nature, poem, politics, poverty, quote

			
Tagged as , , , 

			









	


		January 18, 2023 · 3:39 pm	


	
Transcending – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		






At dVerse Sanaa is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write about winter.





dVerse Poets – Poetics – The Blizzard of the Self















Photo: Victor Miyata at pexels.com










“In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” Albert Camus










Transcending

Summer always smiles faintly as she leaves me,
her lips suddenly thin and sharp,
knowing I will grieve her warm embrace
and the fruit of her lush kisses,
leaving me to the inexorable prudery of the
wasteland of winter's serge,
better suited to vows of unbending monasticism,
funereal finery of dark intonations,
like spells that clang on hard, cold surfaces.

Winter, ever impassive, never smiles at me,
she is far too sensible for such frivol,
always she has work to do,
inexorably instilling us with
her parsimonious agency,
those short, cold, grey days
when I feel most despondent,
summer leaves a note of light 
an intimation that she is on her way.


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️ 

			

	
	

		
32 Comments


					
Filed under awareness, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, quote, seasons

			
Tagged as , , , , , 

			









	


		January 14, 2023 · 3:13 pm	


	
That Immanence Thing – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		






“I like the sea: we understand one another. It is always yearning, sighing for something it cannot have; and so am I.” Greta Gabo















That Immanence Thing

All at once the world came in,
I felt it,
the bird's feathers touched my soul,
it offered such a sublime, electric song
which made me tremble and 
surrender my fragile breath
in a ripe sigh,
for the idea of the thing,
an unknown held
as a jealous secret,
now echoing through my body
like rich magenta solace
gently brushed in generous strokes.


Copyright 2023 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️ 

			

	
	

		
15 Comments


					
Filed under awareness, dreams, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, quote, Spirituality

			
Tagged as , ,