Category Archives: Spirituality

June 25, 2021 · 1:43 pm

Close By – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Cape to Cape trail just south of Ellensbrook

“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary.” Rachel Carson

Close By

I saw you once,
in that far off place of my youth,
where I felt I knew you in my 
mother's shadow by the basilica,
but soon you faded like yellowing
wallpaper in a dark back room,
and then you were gone and I was
unanchored in the storms as I 
searched museums and breviaries,
only to find you close by, hidden
in dragonflies and thistles down
uneven tracks, alongside 
decomposing logs where
wattles breathe gladness.


Copyright 2021 © Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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June 19, 2021 · 3:25 pm

Dispelled – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo by Christopher Campbell on Unsplash



“Freedom from desire leads to inner peace.” Lao Tzu 

Dispelled 

Cog toothed maniacal, steel eyed
gangle trap, biting the tender throat 
of my hours, viral spreading,
life sapping, dull billboards, those
hypertense sucking creepers of
wounded hearts, in thrice silence
dispelled meekly by the outward 
breath so detached in the soul's
crystal laughter drifting beyond 
the cries of the minute keeper to
a stillness beyond cogito to tears 
of joy raining on the inside. 

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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May 12, 2021 · 2:54 pm

I Wonder – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Sarah is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write a poem around the word blue.

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Blue Tuesday

Video: Shoalwater Bay looking west to Penguin Island.

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. And in that space lies our power to choose. And in our choice lies our growth and freedom.” (attr) Victor Frankl

I Wonder 

Where sky collides with earth,
where oceans meet with clouds
in indecipherable moments,
a conversation easily irrupts,
translated between something 
grounded and something free,
I'm not always certain of the 
meaning but it doesn't seem to
matter, this convergence is
devoid of portent, words as
worlds so light, soft as night,
spoken in tones of translucent 
blue sounds that enfold me
and I wonder when I will return
beyond my between.

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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April 30, 2021 · 2:42 pm

If I Had A Light – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Mish is hosting Open Link Night, the night we make our own choice of poem to post.

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Photo: Reserve trail walk adjacent to the Hardy Inlet.

“Anything we experience, no matter how challenging, can become an open pathway to awakening.” Pema Chodron

If I Had A Light

If I had a light I could see my way,
or perhaps a map where I could chart a
path, but it remains indecipherable,
though neither dark nor fogged in my
mind's eye, it is simply a discernment
of journey, a surprise awakening, a not
this, instead, perhaps this or that in a 
lived experience, all the richer for its
misdirections, its hidden meanings,
even its lack of clarity is a decided
gift of discovery, which, in the end
seems quite natural, a hindsight
twenty-twenty, a reverse of 
understanding of how we go,
not where or when we go, but, 
as we go we discover so much of
our beginnings with self and the
strive to transcend it.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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April 17, 2021 · 3:01 pm

Ineffable – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Art Core Studios, pixabay.com

“The mystical is not how the world is, but that it is.” Ludwig Wittgenstein

Ineffable

Mystical schizophrenia harboured in a singular mind,
not hard to explain like the simplicity of a zen koan,
an ineffable experience like sunsets without words
self dissolving into presence as I feel everything.

Not hard to explain like the simplicity of a zen koan,
washed in the gentle streams of one's thoughts,
self dissolving into presence as I feel everything,
this is the way things are with an open heart.

Washed in the gentle streams of one's thoughts,
floating on air like a dandelion seed content,
This is the way things are with an open heart
knowing that I am simply moving in any direction.

Floating on air like a dandelion seed content,
an ineffable experience like sunsets without words,
knowing that I am simply moving in any direction,
mystical schizophrenia harboured in a singular mind.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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April 4, 2021 · 3:14 pm

Take Off Your Shoes – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon






Photo: images.medicaldaily.com










“Our relationships live in the space between us which is sacred.” Martin Buber










Take Off Your Shoes

I sense that my very ordinary shoes
would soil this place where angels
seldom wander, this place which scoops 
me up in its beauty, where nothing can
be separated out and where we tried to 
assemble our beliefs into small pieces
of approval, not realising that we are 
gentle enough to lift the dark weight
dividing us, and float together beyond
the leaden mantle of thought required
to make real what is unreal, when all 
that is necessary is to accept that 
the space between us is sacred.

©Paul Vincent Cannon






			

	
	

		
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		January 13, 2021 · 1:23 pm	


	
And I Float – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		

VJs Weekly Challenge – What pulls on your soul?










Photo: pixabay.com










“You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.”  Alan Watts










And I Float

Where the wild iris blooms by itself,
in the deep forest of my unmask,
where my heart runs white water,
my mind surrenders to gladsome song.

In the deep forest of my unmask
all attachment falls to the ground,
my mind surrenders to gladsome song,
and I float as a peace dove sails.

All attachment falls to the ground,
its redemption uncertain in this humous,
and I float as a peace dove sails,
a feathered turtle in the sands of time.

Its redemption uncertain in this humous
where my heart runs white water,
a feathered turtle in the sands of time
where the wild iris blooms by itself.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

			

	
	

		
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		January 3, 2021 · 2:47 pm	


	
Those Who Are Awake -a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		

Photo: soulvibe.com










“You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”  Rumi










Those Who Are Awake

Awareness comes to those who are awake,
to those who refuse to be imprisoned to
beliefs and the rightness of certain actions,
and to those who have befriended death.

To those who refuse to be imprisoned to,
by the expectations of popular diatribes,
to those who have befriended death
and who stare down life's insoluble foibles.

By the expectations of popular diatribes
one could live one's inner darkness,
and who stare down life's insoluble foibles,
are those who are uncertain winners.

One could live one's inner darkness,
beliefs and the rightness of certain actions
are those who are uncertain winners,
awareness comes to those who are awake.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

			

	
	

		
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		December 29, 2020 · 6:53 am	


	
Rituals – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		

Photo: shutterstock.com










“…. by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom inherent within you anyhow. Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life. I think ritual is terribly important.”  Joseph Campbell 










Rituals

The sacred rituals of my day
arise with some herbal tea and 
a greeting of some feathered friends
while garden wandering to rejoice in
yesterdays hard, loving work,
a meal to prepare with tender
zen-like intention with each move,
then stilling down at days end,
ancient viviers, wine in hand,
recounting the day's treasures,
storing them in each other to
savour and sift at leisure, these 
are the sacred rituals of my day.

©Paul Vincent Cannon


			

	
	

		
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		October 27, 2020 · 2:31 am	


	
The Keening – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon
	

		

Frank at dVerse is hosting Haibun Monday and the theme is Happy Halloween. dVerse Poets – Haibun – Happy Halloween










Photo: favim.com










“I can see lights in the distance trembling in the dark cloak of night. Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing a waltz on All Souls Night.”  Lorena Mckennitt





The Keening





Moving, yet completely still within herself as night pressed in gently around her, she stopped in a felt moment and stood in what seemed a right place of heart. Her bare feet connecting the hallowed ground, she raised her arms to the stars and danced in saintly solace, this way and that. She keened for love departed, for all her loves departed. She keened for the unknown. As the stars passed her voice softened to a love song, for all the faces now present as she had re-membered them. Her eyes opened with morning warmth and a garland of dew.





Hidden beyond stars
love remembered in thinness
as lotus shines.


 ©Paul Vincent Cannon


Note: the ancient Celts always believed that the spirit world interacted in special moments in "thin" places, the place between the secular and the spirit world was thin, touchable, knowable. Most often these thin places were in groves. Celtic Christians carried this into their own theological world view.                                                                                                                                                                                 

			

	
	

		
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