Category Archives: Spirituality

June 19, 2020 · 2:09 pm

This Moment – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Frank at dVerse is hosting Meet The Bar and has invited us to write a poem in the vogue of ‘imagism’ (e.g. Pound, Williams and etc.). dVerse Poets

Photo: pixabay.com

“Our world is at the crossroads.” LL COOL J

This Moment

This moment is the moment,
and nothing of surprise,
to be in this space,
this place we dread,
its tensioned uncertainty,
this moment of burdens
unreleased and pressing
on conscience everywhere,
this moment of crossroads
an eon chancing change
after many trials,
this moment in my eye is
a twinkling of goodness,
the moment of all moments,
is this moment now.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

23 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, quote, self-development, Spirituality

Tagged as , , ,

May 27, 2020 · 4:15 pm

There Was A Room – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Make Me Some Room

Laura at dVerse has invited us to write about a room or rooms in whatever manner.

OIP.QKqfe-H2ipaJuvLDGZsJnAHaE8

Image: wakeup-world.com

 

“I am not absent-minded.  It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of everything else.”  G.K. Chesterton

There Was A Room

Once,
I had memories of an outside world
that I never left, but never lived
since the solace of solitude
there was another place,
my room within a room,
I vaguely remember,
was it large or small,
attic or other?
To know is never important
whether the room was in me
or I in the room,
there was a room.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

30 Comments

Filed under dreams, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , ,

May 12, 2020 · 3:21 pm

The Singer Of Love Songs – prose by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Prosery

Bjorn at dVerse has invited us to write a piece of prose including the line “His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream” from Maya Angelou’s ‘Caged Bird’

OIP.314XAAIsXP6qkOOD6f7sVgHaFi.jpeg

Image: yogamountainstudio.com

 

“Hope is a waking dream.”  Aristotle

The Singer Of Love Songs

O the singer of love songs, his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream in the middle of a fire, in the middle of a torrent, a tumult. And there the scattered bones of love mock his impertinent hope beyond broken idols and lost moments that speak of eternal anguish. His is no ordinary voice. His hope is never quenched by that malady of darkness. He dares to speak of tomorrow as if nothing else were sure at all, that indeed, nothing else matters. His voice is clothed in a raiment of beauty that lifts the soul like one transported by an angelic choir to a joyful ether of heart, away from the mocking shadows of doubt. O the singer of love songs, his shadow shouts into light as soft caress of l’armour, desiring the world to rise in love and sing together once more.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

24 Comments

Filed under life, love, prose, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , ,

May 11, 2020 · 2:18 pm

Nothing – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

photo-1558300629-7157feef55f8.jpeg

Photo: unsplash.com

 

“Such silence has an actual sound, the sound of disappearance.”  Suzanne Finnamore

Nothing

The mist kissed the water tenderly
and held me prisoner in the moment
that must never be squandered,
my breathing as fragile as the air,
waiting for an ending that will not come,
pulled into the juncture of realms,
lost in worlds where no thief resides
save that of my own inattention,
but I turn from that page,
even from the tempting words,
here I want for nothing.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

12 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, Free Verse, life, meditation, mindfulness, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , ,

May 9, 2020 · 2:35 pm

Moving – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

RDP Saturday – Nomad

7575A846-F293-4DEE-8BD2-7ECC27EEBEC9.jpeg

Photo: Mundaring State Forrest, a perfect soul place.

“Every exit is an entry somewhere else.”  Tom Stoppard

Moving

There’s a gentle stirring in my soul,
like autumn leaves drifting the winds,
kissing the soil,
rustling in hedgerows,
skittering along roads,
eddying the corners,
lifting and folding,
swirling round and round,
catching my attention
to a sense of movement
deep within that, even though
I’m standing still in this place,
my soul is nomad once again
and my sense of self is gently moving on.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

33 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, nature, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , ,

May 6, 2020 · 3:03 pm

There Are Moments – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Solitude

Bjorn at dVerse is hosting poetics and has invited us to write about solitude while trying to avoid using the word itself.6AE55DF0-5D2C-420E-A901-F4DF5F165703.jpeg

Photo: Somewhere between Merredin and Menzies. The bush is my best solitude.

 

“The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug.” 
Pico Iyer

There Are Moments

I gather myself in this place
where the quiet examines me,
knowing that I yearn for it
as a lover yearns for completion,
even so, I avert myself at times
from the uncomfortable rawness of
the self intimacy of such knowing,
preferring to skirt the edges
below the mask so worn,
and yet, there are moments,
fleeting, like the pause of a breath,
within which an elusive thought
awakens my soul.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

45 Comments

Filed under bush walking, Country, Free Verse, life, meditation, mindfulness, nature, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , ,

May 6, 2020 · 12:11 am

Sanctuary – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

church-820339__480.jpg

Photo: pixabay.com

 

“Otherness cannot be a form.”  Nicholas of Cusa

Sanctuary

The map of the imaginable
is found only in dreams,
vessels its mere dwelling
to strip away the chimera
and reach into the unknown,
leaving the caim of my own
clinging, soft assurance to
discover otherness in
crevice, corner, underside,
the small of the wild is
ever sanctuary to the fire
of creative love.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

 

Note: the first line comes from the philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884 – 1962)

Paul, pvcann.com

 

41 Comments

Filed under Alt-Religion, bush walking, Country, creativity, Free Verse, mindfulness, nature, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , ,

April 30, 2020 · 4:14 pm

Reducing The Distance – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

7iaagM9iA.jpeg

Image: clipartbest.com

 

“Openness isn’t the end; it’s the beginning.”  Margaret Heffernan

Reducing The Distance

Fear and prejudice are manifest,
tearing at our hearts as
one fear begets another and
to step out of that slavery
is what brings us together,
reducing the distance of suspicion
where we discover each other
leaving no room for misunderstanding,
no longer wanting what I don’t want
and knowing that fulfillment is
that which is within is that
by which I live,
a hidden wisdom to
which I constantly respond
with surprise.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

32 Comments

Filed under community, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , ,

April 11, 2020 · 4:15 pm

Breathe Again – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

emissions-covid-1208916655.adapt.1900.1.jpg

Photo: David Mcnew, Getty Images.  LA as a result of Corona lock-down and less traffic has clearer skies. Once again Mt. Everest is visible from India and Nepal, and other cities, especially Wuhan, have clear air. For a moment the earth breathes, but only a moment, and we’re not touching even the tip of the carbon berg.

 

“Silence is only frightening people who are compulsively verbalizing.”  William S. Buroughs

Breathe Again

Why haven’t we done this before,
is the monk’s cell so vulgar,
so stark, that we cannot contemplate
the wholeness of solitude
and turn aside, weary as we are,
to rest a while from the wheel,
letting the earth breathe again,
that we might too.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

66 Comments

Filed under community, death, Free Verse, Ilness, life, mindfulness, poem, Quadrille, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , , ,

March 10, 2020 · 6:54 am

Sparks Of Hope – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Quadrille

De at dVerse has invited us to write a Quadrille (44 words) using any form of the word stir.

1.jpg

Photo: shutterstock.com

 

“Sometimes a flame can shrink or waver, but sometimes a flame refuses to go out. It flares up from the  faintest ember to illuminate the darkness, to burn in spite of overwhelming odds.”  Karen Hesse.

 

Sparks Of Hope

The ancient hearth had dimmed,
what once was stoked
now barely glowed,
as we arrived
darkness shrouded round,
a question formed my mind,
to stir or not to stir,
the western light fading fast,
so I spirited the coals,
breath erupting sparks
of hope.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

58 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, life, poem, Quadrille, quote, Spirituality

Tagged as , , , , ,