Category Archives: Spirituality

December 7, 2021 · 3:03 pm

Honour For The Stolen – Prosery by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Lisa is hosting Prosery (144 words) with an invitation to write including the sentence “I dress in their stories patterned and purple as night.” from the poem ‘When we sing of might’ by Kimberly Blaeser.

dVerse Poets – Prosery – Lost – Found/Lost/children

Photo: still shot from the film ‘The Rabbit Proof Fence’ a story of three aboriginal girls forcibly taken from their mothers and placed in a town far away under white control in oder to assimilate them and exploit them. The film is based on the true story as told by author Doris Pilkington who was taken from her mother at three years of age, in her book of the same name. Known as the Stolen Generation, children were forcibly removed over generations between 1884 and 1969.

“In their grief the women asked why their children should be taken form them.” Doris Pilkington ‘The Rabbit Proof Fence’

Honour For The Stolen

The darkness of enlightened men voids my world in a sadness too weighty to even speak. They pretended to save the world as a ruse to colonise and dehumanise those they encountered in every land who they deemed to be sub-human. Your arrogance is too great to measure and your refuge too trite to count. 

You cowards, you hid behind your public schools, your venture capital, your egos and your hypocrisy in claiming the purity of the bleeding Christ, which raises bile in my throat and fire in my gut. You knew full well the moral weight of your actions. I weep for the loss of life in all its experience, and I dress in their stories patterned and purple as night. I cannot bring them back, but I can honour the beauty of their presence and name the meaning of their lives.

Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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November 22, 2021 · 4:48 pm

The Ordinary Sacred – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: sarangib at pixabay.com

“…. we exist together in a sacred field of meaning.” Joy Harjo

The Ordinary Sacred

The plaque offered to peg one of those 
'our lady of the moment' moments, 
a memory without words, companion 
to possibility, opening the fire of
ancestors , asking the question,
what next? A jumbled melange of 
intentions? A triumph of the ages?
or the feeling of saffron, the taste of 
incense and, all the while, inching
toward the ordinary sacred.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

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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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