Photo: yahoo.com
“I dream of giving birth to a child asks, ‘Mother, what was war?'” Eve Merriam
How simple to hold,
to love,
feed,
encourage,
extend a branch towards hope,
how easy to cut the tree down
and offer striped pyjamas
and barbed wire,
gas,
to be disappeared,
stolen,
tortured,
bombed,
excluded,
walled,
how simple
that none flourish.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Economics, Free Verse, life, love, philosophy, poem, politics, quote, Therapy, war
Photo: cei.org
“The corruption of every government begins nearly always with that of principles.” Charles de Montesquieu
The devil has a clipboard,
innocuous,
amorphous,
beady-eyed,
keeping score.
The devil has regulations,
no longer shy,
brazen,
not hiding in the detail
but living out in derision
and smug bastardry,
feeding on discomfort,
worse,
enjoying the powerlessness
of the confusion of
disavowed expectations
and the endless minutiae of
plausible impossibility
carefully tucked inside
shifting goalposts,
ever making promises and
snatching the joy away
just as the sweet and tender
seek to reach and trust.
The devil has a laptop,
keeping track,
seeking entrapment,
preying along the fault-lines
of desire and hope.
The devil has a home
inside your ballot box.
The Devil means well.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Economics, Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, politics, quote, Uncategorized
Photo: charity.org
“Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.” Maimonides
What does love for others really cost,
what pain to wash their feet,
to serve and walk in other’s shoes,
and feed the hungry too,
what might that mean?
to give my coat and
be vulnerable, what then?
To forgive, no, really forgive,
how would that feel?
To live with an integrity that
values every form of life,
never seeking gain,
just imagine if we were
careless for the things
that alienate, the machine of empire,
the greed and gorge of living,
if we turned our guns to plough-shares
and plastic into roads,
just imagine what love might cost,
and go and cash the cheque.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under community, Economics, environment, Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, politics, quote
Photo: dreamicus.com
“Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.” Jawaharlal Nehru
Discomfort seems right,
the inordinate pain of all there is
resides in my heart and
I needed expiation sooner,
so, I travailed a season
in sackcloth and covered myself
with the finest of ash
awaiting the niggle and itch
of life’s little contradictions
that somehow seemed normal,
no phoenix here but, instead
the graft of living invites
us to ash and to be
lost in the dust of time.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, Link, philosophy
dVerse Poets – Poetics – Black
Image: forum.slowtwitch.com
“The colour of truth is gray.” Andre Gide
Grief is incontrovertible in black,
and depression, I’m told,
barks all night
and absorbs light in the day,
while white as light
is Jekyll and Hyde
in the woods,
no telling the deception,
but grey,
now there’s a venerable colour
that speaks truth.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, mindfulness, philosophy, poem, Quadrille, quote
Image: thebestbrainpossible.com
“Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.” Hermann Hesse
How
does one keep
more to the point,
what does one keep
who am I to keep anything and
isn’t keeping about wanting
about accumulating,
surely not a person,
and don’t animals keep us?
when I think of keeping,
it’s time to let go.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, mindfulness, philosophy, poem, Quadrille, quote
Photo: huffingtonpost.co.uk
“…. if we could move away from a culture of compliance based on ‘perverse incentives’ and ‘too much focus on achieving targets.'” E. Munro
I didn’t realise the magical power of managerialism,
if only we’d thrown it at Hitler in Prague
we’d have stopped the war at the start,
what if we talked it to Ho Chi Minh or
the drug dealer down on the corner,
perhaps it would save the poor
or schmooze the terrorists to relent,
reverse global warming and
save a species or two as well,
we’ll stop disease altogether,
you see, we’ve got a plan
all policied and shiny
with targets and outcomes
and performance indicators
in case we get lost,
regulations and procedures
to keep us in line
and risk management in case
the lines run out,
with this kit and caboodle
we’ll conquer the world,
one document at a time,
all will be well
she passionately droned.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, politics, quote
Photo: remit.com.au
“Recognise yourself in he and she who are not like you and me.” Carlos Fuentes
Like Moses to the promised land
the pitiful migrants come,
aliens with new found purpose
we dash their hopes
and steal the fun,
we’ve pissed on all the posts
so, the soils ours
we don’t want your herbs
or scarves, or prayers,
go back
you don’t belong,
but then, nor do we,
we stole the place
only just a while ago,
©Paul Vincent Cannon
The title, to borrow a line, could well be “Good, good, good, God migration!
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, community, Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, quote
Photo: http://www.canstockphoto.fr
“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through struggle”. Martin Luther King Jn.
The room went very quiet as we sat together,
it was a pigment of their imagination
that we were perhaps not quite right,
somehow an offence to
the workings of the universe,
but we sat none-the-less
making our mend
one conversation at a time,
bridging the gulf of
someone’s triumphant version of history,
grounding ourselves in each other,
making our paths straight.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, politics, quote, relationship
Laura at dVerse has challenged us to take a line of Pablo Neruda and create a riposte or rejoinder.
I have chosen “Why did the grove undress itself only to wait for the snow.” Pablo Neruda
Photo: pixabay.com
“What is to give light must endure burning.” Victor Frankl
The confessional moment is pending,
an absurdist response,
to excoriate and purify
the hidden
by a letting go
a shedding of pretence,
no room for Janus
though Sisyphus is close,
tearing at the inane
letting the core settle
in a visceral landscape
where the cold burns,
let it be so!
For cauterised we are yet
emboldened,
strengthened,
readied,
for the new.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, Mythology, nature, philosophy, poem, quote
Athul Raj
Ri Orientarsi, alla ricerca del nostro baricentro interiore
#Livetoread
who you follow now determines what follows you in life
A digital space feat. poetry, art, nonfiction, interviews, and reviews by marginalized creators.
Book Blogger, Author, and I talk about dogs...a lot
Explore the World of Imagination & Join the Mind Revolution!
The view from here ... Or here!
Here's To Express.. :)
Ink Travel Vintage
i just opened my diary and found an array of emotions
God's word for the world
Poems, Haiku, Paintings & Photographs
A somewhat healthy obsession with photography
living in the vibe of my emotions
Travel Guides to Destinations Around the World
Home is where our story begins.
A place in my city "that if you ever come to please check out some of these finest restaurant that my city has to offer .
work as an investment manager with a crypto currency mining firm that generates good profits weekly
I read and fall in love with fictional characters
NEUTRALIZE THE FREE RADICALS
live life in livable environment
I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes. - Sara Teasdale
Living Healthier and Happier Nourishing Body and Soul
Motivation as a lifestyle
Athul Raj
Ri Orientarsi, alla ricerca del nostro baricentro interiore
#Livetoread
who you follow now determines what follows you in life
A digital space feat. poetry, art, nonfiction, interviews, and reviews by marginalized creators.
Book Blogger, Author, and I talk about dogs...a lot
Explore the World of Imagination & Join the Mind Revolution!
The view from here ... Or here!
Here's To Express.. :)
Ink Travel Vintage
i just opened my diary and found an array of emotions
God's word for the world
Poems, Haiku, Paintings & Photographs
A somewhat healthy obsession with photography
living in the vibe of my emotions
Travel Guides to Destinations Around the World
Home is where our story begins.
A place in my city "that if you ever come to please check out some of these finest restaurant that my city has to offer .
work as an investment manager with a crypto currency mining firm that generates good profits weekly
I read and fall in love with fictional characters
