Category Archives: prose

July 20, 2021 · 1:07 pm

Shucker’s Delight – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Lisa is hosting Prosery, a piece of prose of 144 words, inviting us to use a line from a poem by Zora Neale Hurston which comes from her work ‘How Does it Feel to be Coloured Me’ in ‘World Tomorrow’ (1928)

dVerse Poets – Prosery – Finding Ms. Zora Neale Thurston

Photo: found at thegoodtrade.com

“Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” Carl Jung

Shucker’s Delight

No, I do not weep at the world – I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife. I find it occupies me best of all. I’m a shucker from way back and I have my own rhythm and movement, a time honoured practice of holding, inserting, twisting and opening. So simple, every action economical, a form of meditation, I love the concentration, one slip and I might lose a finger – I have wounds to show for every lapse. Wounds where I surrender focus to the searing hurts of humanity. This is no escape, just a respite, a regathering from the morass of pain felt in tones of colour, known in cries for justice, that which bleeds from the despair of prison gates. If I didn’t sharpen this oyster knife I fear the world would possess my emotions and blunt my innocent dance of freedom against power.

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon

All Rights Reserved ®

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June 8, 2021 · 2:01 pm

Leaving Regret – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Merril is hosting Prosery (up tp 144 words) using a line from the poem ‘A Map to The Next World.’ by Jo Harjo

dVerse Poets – Prosery

The line is: “Crucial to finding the way is this: there is no beginning or end.”

Photo: found at huffpost.com

“If you aren’t in the moment, you are either looking forward to uncertainty, or back to pain and regret.” Jim Carrey

Leaving Regret 

Regret, that yearning to grasp at something that slipped away, some long buried treasure 
like a skill or passion, a friendship, an opportunity, the "only if I'd" .... the voice 
that says you could have done that, you would have been set for life, if only you had or 
hadn't, whatever that may mean.

So strange that we live in anxious competition for the perfect life and yet, ironically, 
risk missing life altogether. The past is a mixture of joy and sorrow, but either way it 
can hold us prisoner, while the future is always possible, yet for some, full of worry. 
Life for me is circular, and in a circular world crucial to finding the way is this: there 
is no beginning or end, life is not a race along linear lines of achievement or loss, there
is no pennant only life itself.

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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May 11, 2021 · 4:34 pm

Guilty Of Not Seeing – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse, Sanaa is hosting Prosery with an invitation to include a line by Rilke – “Only mouths are we. Who sings the distant heart which safely.”

Photo: survival.org.au

Guilty Of Not Seeing

The magpie lark returned to her nest with tidbits for all, and I was struck be her persistent nature, always, every morning, heading out of the nest looking for insects to feed her chicks. And on return to her little round castle, she is always greeted by four squawking mouths, all pleading, begging for a morsel. And, of course, here lies a metaphor so obvious, that the whole of humanity is at risk of falling into this same response, squawking at the government, agencies, not-for-profits, who should tend and feed the masses. And surely we are guilty, only mouths are we. Who sings the distant heart which safely exists in the centre of all things? guilty of not seeing that the author of life who is at the centre of everything. We are, perhaps, so busy pleading for dependency that we fail to see.

Copyright © 2021 Paul Vincent Cannon

All rights reserved ®

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April 13, 2021 · 4:30 pm

The Dreamer – Prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Lillian is hosting Prosery where we are invited to write a piece of prose of 144 words including the line of poem offered by the host. Grace has invited us to work with the line ” If you are a dreamer, come in” which is from Shel Silverstein’s poem ‘Invitation’

dVerse Poets – Prosery

Photo: theculturaldictionary.com

“Don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go and do that. Because what the world needs are people who are alive.” Howard Thurman

The Dreamer

I was walking along, multi-thinking, moving my mind to the end of the day so that I could get there quicker. I’m sure you’ve done that sometime. I wasn’t paying particular attention to anyone or anything. So I was surprised when a voice called out, a voice that was so unusual it. I didn’t think it was anyone calling to me but I looked around because I wanted to see who owned such an unusual voice. I was thinking hippy, free spirited, all tie-dyed, but there was Mr Business Suit beaming a smile. I stared at him and he gestured to the door “if you are a dreamer, come in.” Am I a dreamer? Yes I’m a dreamer, but I’m not coming in, I have my own dreams, I’m not buying yours, no way! They cost the earth, literally.” I walked away.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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March 30, 2021 · 2:34 pm

Come Join Me – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Frank is hosting Haibun with an invitation to write about cherry blossoms.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – Cherry Blossoms

Photo: Hans Braxmeier at pixabay.com

“To find yourself, think for yourself.” Socrates

Come Join Me

Going to hell in a handcart seems infinitely better than joining with the elite ignorance of those who presume they're on for a visit to the angel bar in the ether. How can it be that we tolerate the essence of ego over integrity, where is the authentic one, where the grounded reality? How is it that we have put a gun to the head of community, in pursuit of self-indulgence?

Of course, it is infinitely more valid if we charge a small fortune  for courses that enable wrong choices to look like someone else, someone who knows the mantra. Surely it is time to self-prune, to take stock and account for the present moment? Whatever your disposition, my handcart has plenty of room, so come join me on the road to the hell that is not really hell, it is not what you'd imagine, but then, the path to a constructed heaven is just an irony of marketing, so what have you got to lose?


An autumn pruning
safeguards generous spring 
cherry tree smiling

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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March 24, 2021 · 2:28 pm

The Canvas – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Laura is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write in response to painting titles. Of the five title choices I chose the first: “A Painter Without A Brush” by Gerhard Richter (2019)

dVerse Poets – Poetics – The Poet As Painter

Photo: found at freepic.com

“Many painters are afraid of the blank canvas, but the blank canvas is afraid of the painter who dares and who has broken the spell of ‘you can’t’ once and for all.’ ” Vincent Van Gogh 

The Canvas

The canvas stared at him long,
taunting him, daring him to move 
sans brush upon its surface,
he stared back smilingly happy,
slowly he undressed and rolled
up his shirt and soaked it in paint,
and frenzied it across the silent
canvas, all at once, fingers, arms,
legs, with every inch of body, he
kissed and caressed that canvas
with a language of colour rarely 
seen in any conversation or
heard on any palette of note.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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March 16, 2021 · 1:33 pm

Talking – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Merril is hosting Prosery with an invitation to write a prose piece including a line from the poem “Possibilities” by Wislawa Szymborska. Prosery – 144 words.

dVerse Poets – Prosery – Possibilities

Photo: LNLNLN at pixabay.com

“Imagination belongs to hope. It’s the creative dance of possibility.” Sharon Weil 

Talking

We were talking the deeper things of life, like destiny, and I ventured that destiny is so passe. Do people still think that there is a moment in time, that point at which you fully arrive? Really? Or that hoary old thought, that we're predestined to arrive at something, as if the gods are playing us, running interference , but we're going to get to a key point anyway. Or the graft model, if you work hard enough you'll get there in the end and, perhaps they do, although it has been noted that hard work is an early grave. But I digress. I prefer keeping in mind even the possibility that existence has its own reason for being. That a multiplicity of possibilities exist in time, and out, in their own right, throughout the universe, waiting for me to notice the portal.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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March 2, 2021 · 2:18 pm

One Way Through – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Lillian is hosting Haibun with a focus on walking down memory lane.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – Walk With Me Down Memory Lane

Surreal Art Work by Jacek Yerka and found at image.slidesharecdn.com

“Everybody should keep some grip on childhood, even as a grownup.” Tim Curry

One Way Through

As spring made way for summer everything seemed full and lush, even the northern July evenings were slightly longer than the ending of Hey Jude which was idyllic when sleep seemed like theft of life. But there were dark tones in this summer of light. Why was mum so frightened, why were dad's fists so loud? It was a house of mixed feelings like the edge of a wave teetering near rocks.

Sometimes there was a deep silence, followed by absence. Baby-sitters appeared at intervals, young couples whose tongues were intertwined in closed eyes of desire, though not so much before I was given a cup of cocoa and soon sent to bed.

Our house wasn't ancient, but it was easy to hear anyone coming up the stairs, so I knew I could please myself in a wonderland. So I would throw back the curtains and marvel at the light, open the window and dangle my legs over the ledge. I was lost in the wonder of peace and stillness, dreaming of tigers, Sherwood Forest, and rescuing Alice from queens unknown. This was my refuge.


I sailed the angry sea
past dark resolution rocks
you are my refuge.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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February 16, 2021 · 4:30 pm

Which Way? – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Kim is hosting Prosery with an invitation to use a line from the poem ‘The Song of Wandering Aengus’ by William Butler Yeats. The line is: “I went out to the hazel wood, because a fire was in my head.”

dVerse Poets – Prosery

Photo: found at juggernautmc.com

“We have to get used to the idea that at the most important crossroads in our life there are no signs.” Ernest Hemingway.

Which Way?

I wanted to take time with my old friends who were welling up in my chest. Where to in my life now, seemed to be the most pressing question stirring my emotions. I sought the pilgrims trail, so I went out to the hazel wood, because a fire was in my head and heart. Eventually the walk began to clear my head, and then I came to a crossroad, which I received as a question. What now, do I turn at either side or go on, or even stay where I am? What does this mean for me? The Irish gave a word for this, trasna or crossing place, to cross over. It means choosing a move. This fire in me has brought me to a turning point, and I mean to go on. So, which way will I choose, which path will I take?

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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February 2, 2021 · 4:04 pm

The Drought – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Frank is hosting Haibun with an invitation to write about the eagle.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – Eagle

Photo: https://publications.australian.museum/ showing a wedge tailed eagle.

“Fierce eagles do not produce timorous doves.” Horace

The Drought

45c and the road, straighter than straight, rolling beyond what the rusted sign advised. Blues, liquid, twelve bar, driving through this dry land. Paddocks hollow and stricken, rain forsaken for so long now, nothing holds in this dust. Crows picking the eyes out of everything that ceases to move, that cadaver buffet for pall bearers.

The gates blur in fifth, the barbed wire whispers strained songs of lament and I weep as I pass the delusion of hope trying to bale non-existent hay, the sadness of twenty bales to a hundred acres. And I weep for this place where endings complete and there are no obvious beginnings.

I slow as I see the spectre eyeing emaciated sheep. The angel of death eyes me and I nod in deference, better an ending than tortured horizons. I wave my blessing, thankful that the feathered euthanasia will ease the shepherds pain. In this moment the eagle is surgeon, priest and mourner, holding a ritual, taking death for life.


Life now surrendered
throat offered for sacrifice
feathered friend loves life

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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