Photo: pixabay.com
“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer.” Edward Abbey.
Adam’s spawn did play a game,
a nasty little game so spiteful,
turning the earth’s abundance
to a paucity
an economics of scarcity
to benefit the few and
starve the many,
for giggles did they
sup in full view
on the horn of plenty
thumbing their noses at death,
who smiled.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Economics, Free Verse, life, philosophy, poetry, politics, quote
For Them That Be Wild Things – Cafe Philos Poetry Prompt
This prompt began recently at Cafe Philos – Paul Sunstone’s Blog, have a look please.
The defiance of August Landmesser who refused to give the salute at a Nazi rally at his work place.
“Civil disobedience is not the problem, our problem is obedience.” Howard Zinn
The dogmatics
that straight lines are the only way
is mere moralism
that suffocates
a humanity
content to be obedient
to the subjectivity
of those who laugh over us
in waves of contempt,
marching under the flag
devoid of anything
other than self-indulgence
and the murder of minds
for better worlds
that are still-born
of wombs imprisoned
inside tiny thoughts.
But to stand,
to stick it to the dogma man
is to
walk to Dandi for a lick of salt,
be chained to railings for a vote,
to ride a bus and insult,
march the mall,
go to prison,
burn a flag
and bare the breast,
equality, liberty, community,
the tripartite
way to say no.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, politics
Image: lounge.obviousmag.org A bust of Plato
Meno strutting in Athens with entourage
sycophant of Gorgias
that overblown sophist and Socratic doubter,
Plato counter-posed you
in a double counter play
of the virtue of virtue
how innate, how not,
and you were confused
a mere child caught in
a permanent aporia,
but Socrates,
dear, tragic Socrates
showed you the way,
to search for that which
we do not know.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Note: Plato wrote ‘Meno’ as a Socratic piece, a dialogue between Meno and Socrates. Meno is young and believes he is accomplished and clever, but Socrates proves him to be confused and lacking. Meno was also a mercenary who became involved with Cyrus the 2nd’s attempt to take the Persian throne from Artaxerxes, Cyrus was killed and Meno and other generals captured, all but Meno were beheaded. And I quip, at least he kept his head that time. The poem is really an elegy for Socrates who taught Meno a lesson.
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, history, life, philosophy, poem
Unanswerable – VJs Weekly Challenge
Photo: publicdomainpictures.net
Timorous bold
spirited cold,
certain uncertainty
normal abnormality,
truth be told
the answers there
but it’s not,
it hovers out of reach
and lingers like spice on the tongue
a memory not quite clear
even masquerading the tangible
and mocks with fundamental apparition
our every certain veneer,
and answer derides
as we cling and hope,
but even when we think it is,
answer isn’t here.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, mindfulness, philosophy, poem
Photo: pixabay.com
I haven’t read them all,
but I sure have read a few,
Socrates and Plato,
Nargajuna and Descartes,
Mill, Hume and Whitehead
not forgetting Marx,
and my, Zizek’s such fun,
they stir the moribund mind
though a little less than poets do
because Rumi stirs my soul,
but I’d rather learn you
than read all the libraries that are
because my, you stir my heart.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul
Filed under Free Verse, Haiku, life, philosophy, poem
Photo: c.tribune.com.pk
The wrong side
of what is not entirely clear
to me,
but wrong it is said,
of this or that,
from left to right,
in our typical binary fashion,
a perfected duality,
raising the prospect of
who’s in, who’s out?
as if one bloodline is corrupted,
or wombs are so ideologically different,
or blue eyes are ascendant,
and wealth is of colour!
Well, there is no geography,
only doctrinaire fantasy,
a blindness to the heart,
a denial of love.
Of squatters there should be not,
and those who rejoice that there are,
know squat of human connection.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, politics
Christine Blasey Ford, who dared to call out not just a man, not just a powerful man, but a presumptuous power culture. Mother, aunt, sister, cousin, friend, colleague, neighbour … we’re all connected.
She is every woman from every place,
from factory floor to research lab,
she has been assaulted everywhere,
from home to conflict zones,
she’s been invaded and degraded,
tables turned
now offender,
victim on trial.
Liar, Liar, crucify her,
bay the kangaroo court of power,
the ancient privileged cyclops
who laugh and jeer,
and feel supreme,
yet deep down,
driven by a fear that,
just maybe,
one day
they must atone.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul,
pvcann.com
Filed under community, life, philosophy, poetry, politics, Whistleblowing
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I know nothing
Adventure | Photography | Wanderlust
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Framing Life
Photos of my world and other stuff I hope you will enjoy too. Photos taken with Canon PowershotSX70HS Photos can be purchased.
My Mind's Journal
art, writing, reading
My Mormon Transgender Second Life
Poetry, Flash Fiction, and more
Love That Was, Is and Will Be
Bold and Unapologetic
