Category Archives: politics

September 18, 2021 · 3:08 pm

Despite The Tiny Voice – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found at exopetguides.com

“Every bad institution of this world ends by suicide.” Victor Hugo

Despite The Tiny Voice

The ancient serpent lay sunning in the
open noon warmth, sluggish and laden 
from decades of lazily gorging tripe, 
leaving the forest somewhat bare of life, 
despite the tiny voice that had pleaded for 
change, still the serpent followed its familiar 
comfort and, beginning with its tail, began 
slowly devouring itself in the belief that it
could not possibly come to an end.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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July 21, 2021 · 2:54 pm

You Cannot – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Art work: found at notbuyinganything.blogspot.com

“The new slavery is consumerism.” Bryant McGill

You Cannot

You cannot make a silk purse from the isms of life
though many have tried and succeeded for a time,
wrapping them in beautiful magnetic attraction,
only to reveal an emptiness of meaning as crisis.

Though many have tried and succeeded for a time,
too soon the facade faded to its skeletal menace
only to reveal an emptiness of meaning as crisis,
the very dust we are returning to laughs at our surmise.

Too soon the facade faded to its skeletal menace,
a harbour of jaundiced, unrepentant misery,
the very dust we are returning to laughs at our surmise,
thinking we could trust the gratuitous laminate-life.

A harbour of jaundiced, unrepentant misery,
wrapping them in beautiful magnetic attraction,
thinking we could trust the gratuitous laminate-life,
you cannot make a silk purse from the isms of life.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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July 19, 2021 · 2:48 pm

Truly Free – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo (found on everipedia.org): Inside the former HM Maze Prison (formerly known as Long Kesh Detention Centre) in Northern Ireland where during the 1970s the British forces interned both IRA and Loyalist prisoners, and in 1981 where Bobby Sands (along with nine other prisoners) died while on hunger strike at the age of 27. The Prison has since been demolished except for a portion retained as historical. Part of the former prison was offered for use by the Eikon Centre for events.

“They may hold our bodies in the most inhuman conditions, but, while our minds are free, our victory is assured.” Bobby Sands

Truly Free

Prison walls incarcerate only those 
who willingly surrender their minds
in easy rapprochement, but the minds
who can transcend the ill facade with
songs of solidarity on their lips, and 
poems of promise in their hearts,  
prophesying to the end of evil; that is 
the mind no longer held, they are truly 
free, even in the last breath.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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July 10, 2021 · 3:20 pm

Murdering Freedom – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Image: whistleblowerlaw.com

“The public needs to know the kinds of things a government does in its name ….” Edward Snowden

Murdering Freedom

Cloth mouthed wanderers,
railing at the world of make believe
as if life seen through the mind is
real in any sense, more a horror of
cards teetering, as protected lies
shake at their foundations, risking
a tumbling facade of fictions that
the machine guards with its life,
willing to silence the whistle
by murdering freedom.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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May 20, 2021 · 3:18 pm

Think About It – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Image: found at the liberaldictionary.com

“We like to be deceived.” Blaise Paschal

Think About It

Stop and think about this moment,
it was a moment until we spoke it,
and then it became something else,
something the mind distorts by way
of acceptance of a perception as real,
the beginning of a pathway to a
meaning that is tenuously held along
narrow horizons awaiting a truth which 
will comfort us towards a blithe lie,
entangled in an iteration of deception
that seeks to seduce us with its
quasi-mythical values which
disempower, just as they seem to 
empower us, O what fools we are
to consume the myopia of dystopic 
shadows.

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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May 1, 2021 · 2:10 pm

Does It Always Have To Be? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Peripheral

Photo: found at dollarsandsense.sg

“In any marginalised community, whether people identify themselves or not affects us all.” Ani DiFranco

Does It Always Have To Be?

Does it always have to be,
that there is an inner and
then a fringe dissociated,
yet desiring to be included,
unable to make the cut,
discounted, excluded, kept
in view to taunt with visions
of what they could have and
be, a group that is worth the
jealousy it presumes and the 
power it assumes that people
are but pawns to exploit and
money is the breath of life
exclusive to the few, an
ephemeral intimacy to 
worship and adore while 
standing on the sorrows of
so many.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

39 Comments

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April 26, 2021 · 2:28 pm

The Trees Need Pruning – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found at northescambia.com showing citrus canker.

“The trees which are pruned, watered and nurtured by caring hands bear the greatest fruits; it is the same with people.” Bryant McGill

The Trees Need Pruning

Who sets the rules,
how do we renegotiate the public space,
will trust ever re-emerge past the deep
suspicion that has been birthed in us,
formed by the canker of the rotting fruit
of moral crises, whose pith is obscene 
resistance to justice and the disturbing 
mnemonic of the slaughterhouses of
power, we have been here before, 
but now, more than ever, the trees 
need pruning.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

32 Comments

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April 18, 2021 · 3:25 pm

A Time Is Coming – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Sarah Richter Art, pixabay.com

“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

A Time Is Coming

The goose of innocence was raped by the proper gander
of importunate lies hidden openly in limpid eyes like
dark lakes of evil on which deceit so carefully floats
like lilies of affirmation with scent of something
foreboding, a sickly sweetness like rotting figs, the
triumph of tyranny over humanity in every generation,
until the heat of tyranny raises resistance and a time 
when the goose is no longer victim.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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January 28, 2021 · 1:38 pm

Professional Liars – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

VJs Weekly Challenge – Threes

Vj has invited us to succinctly write in threes, so either three words, or three lines of three words.

Photo: thenewdaily.com.au

“Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.” Nikita Khrushchev

Professional Liars

Politicians,
disingenuous
liars.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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January 17, 2021 · 1:38 pm

Suddenly The Kitchen Was A Zoo – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: still from the original Jumanji movie – monkeys in the kitchen scene – found at hookedonhouses.net

“In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” Julia Child

Suddenly The Kitchen Was A Zoo

Suddenly the kitchen was a zoo,
salamanders and elephants everywhere,
rolling and roiling in a raucous ruckus
scrambling to lick the laden spoon.

Salamanders and elephants everywhere,
the centre island no longer a refuge,
scrambling to lick the laden spoon,
too many cooks spoiling the moment.

The centre island no longer a refuge,
flour in the air, the oven on fire,
too many cooks spoiling the moment,
just trying to feed the monkeys.

Flour in the air, the oven on fire,
rolling and roiling in a raucous ruckus
just trying to feed the monkeys,
suddenly the kitchen was a zoo.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

33 Comments

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