Category Archives: Uncategorized

April 23, 2022 · 3:41 pm

The Cost Of Leaving – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found on pinterest.com

“If you don’t control your mind, someone else will.” John Allston 

The Cost Of Leaving

The cost of leaving the defined mundane reality,
that entrapment of manufactured truth comfort,
taking time to see how anaesthetised we are,
noticing how we are so easily formed in a bubble.

That entrapment of manufactured truth comfort
with out willing surrender to the thought police,
noticing how we are so easily formed in a bubble,
the discovery that there is life beyond the machine.

With our willing surrender to the thought police,
we join the herd of sameness, lowing compliance,
the discovery that there is life beyond the machine
is an emancipation, a spark of hope in the darkness.

We join the herd of sameness, lowing compliance,
taking time to see how anaesthetised we are,
is an emancipation, a spark of hope in the darkness,
the cost of leaving the defined mundane reality.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

28 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, injustice, life, Pantoum, philosophy, poem, politics, protest, quote, Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,

April 7, 2022 · 2:08 pm

How Long? – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-03-22/ukraine-russia-war-live-blog-zelenskyy-putin-kyiv-mariupol/100927906 Ukraine invaded by Russia – Mariupol suffers heavy shelling.

“Evil thrives on apathy and cannot exist without it.” Hannah Arendt 

How Long?

I felt it coming from my depths,
a murmuration of emotions
rising like leviathan from the roiling sea
of frustration, pacing the bounds of
disgust, wanting to act, not knowing 
how, stooping to the gutter of evil
thoughts, naming the perpetrators 
as if they were alone, singular, in 
their vile behaviour, ignoring the
complicity of humanity in all that 
we do as blame feels weightless,
an expiation of our own powerlessness,
an acknowledgment of the thuggery 
before us, which ever remains as 
I remain, waiting for something,
anything, to happen which might
be an end of this war.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

29 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, injustice, life, poem, quote, Uncategorized, war

Tagged as , , ,

March 17, 2022 · 4:38 pm

Once Again – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Russians fire on Ukraine TV tower oneindia.com

“War is what happens when language fails.” Margaret Atwood 

Once Again

Once again, noble Hector is at the 
ruthless mercy of determined 
Achilles, who needs no blood,
but who seeks glory in a former life,
an expiation of his own sins at the 
cost of a bloody goad, a sacrifice
of decency on the altar of mammon,
and remains un-avowed , a fading
demigod of ruin, what good the sword
when honour is sharper? 


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

16 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

March 13, 2022 · 3:32 pm

When We Stand – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: from the hindustantimes.com Result of Russian bombing of Kharkiv.

“What a dishonour to just bend down and obey fate.” Lesya Ukrainka 

When We stand

What is a moment, 
when is a journey,
how do we step through shadows
in the long night of winter's approach,
cradled in short views of chance and
change, rattled by a murderous chill
that encroaches the edges of my
dreams in little hints of insanity,
carried by a darkness of heart.
What is a moment,
when is a journey?
The journey begins in the moment
when we seek an end to oppression.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

43 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, injustice, poem, politics, quote, Uncategorized, war

Tagged as ,

February 25, 2022 · 9:50 am

The Dogs – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Grace is hosting Poetry Forms with an invitation to write a ‘Sparrowlet’ which is an invented form by Kathrine Sparrow (a variation of a Swap Quatrain). For details of how to write a Sparrowlet follow the link below. In brief a Sparrowlet is written –

Stanzaic, any number of sixains.
Sylabic, iambic tetrameter.
Rhymed (BbabaA)
L1 and L6 of each stanza are written in two hemistichs or half lines.
The two halves of L1 are inverted to form L6.

dVerse Poets – Poetry Forms – Sparrowlet

Wolf wallpaper from site Wolf-Wallpapers.pro

“Something about the howling of a wolf took a man right out of his here and now and left him in a dark forest of mind ….” George RR Martin

The Dogs

The dogs adrift, outside this night
bring vivid dreams of a howl in fright,
my nerves are frayed my mood is rift,
unsettled in this dark seeking light,
my survival now just grift as
outside this night, the dogs adrift.

Visions of bite, so fill my mind
my science of old is a bind,
and yet I stand and here I fight
resisting all the fear of kind,
holding on and not taking flight,
so fill my mind, visions of bite.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

28 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

January 14, 2022 · 12:39 am

Grickle Grackle – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Bjorn is hosting Meet the Bar with an invitation to Narrative Nonsense

dVerse Poets – Meeting The Bar – Narrative Nonsense

Photo: from a stock video by motionarray.com

“From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow.” Aeschylus

Grickle Grackle

Grickle grackle mawn
spreads glow across hills,
all bark and tweet until the
coming of the mungled breath 
of Boreas does break the 
spines of groves, and darks 
the valleys so with the 
pickle packle puddles of
thin hope, shreds of life
crackle and push of green
arrives through the sponge
of this munged quaggle.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All rights Reserved ®

49 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, nature, Nonsense, poem, quote, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

January 5, 2022 · 6:56 am

Dereliction Of The Unthinking Herd – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Sanaa is hosting Poetics – Exploring the realm of French literature … with an invitation to write in the style of a Rimas Dissolutas (Dissolute Rhyme) or write about French ideals or culture. for more detail click the link below.

dVerse Poets – Poetics – Rimas Dissolutas

Photo: libertysociety.com

“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even passively take part ….” Mario Savio

Dereliction Of The Unthinking Herd

The world right now is a dangerous place,
though the danger is not what you'd think,
it's not in adventures and risking as such,
more dereliction of the unthinking herd.

To ask a question with a serious face
is a risk far greater than a poisoned drink,
even worse than a kick in the crutch,
never stand in the way of a crowd absurd.

Government proles spout facts without trace,
while angled cameras show a discernible wink,
as they gather the trusting in a gleeful clutch,
so well inured by their clever, smirking word.

Thinking aloud comes at a cost without grace,
ever the loud who would swallow you in a blink,
frightened of your unboxed thoughts too much,
they rally at your every thought with curd.


Copyright 2022 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

44 Comments

Filed under injustice, life, passion, poem, quote, Rimas Dissolutas, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , ,

January 1, 2022 · 2:15 am

Happy New Year

Photo: pixabay.com

Best wishes to everyone for 2022.

To everyone who has followed and to all who have read and liked my work – a very big thank you for taking the time and valuing the poems – it has been very much appreciated.

Kind regards, Paul

44 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

December 29, 2021 · 12:05 am

Beyond Happiness – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Leschenaultia biloba – the blue is so gentle yet so striking in the West Australian scape. Taken at Mundaring.

“Find ecstasy in life: the mere sense of living is joy enough.” Emily Dickinson

Beyond Happiness

Joy,
that deep soaking of our
whole being beyond mere
happiness ( that fleeting imp),
that swells the soul and lifts 
our very being to the heavens,
leaving us swimming in bursts 
of feeling, rooted in openness
to the sheer simplicity of all
that is, and all that can be,
bringing us back to our truest,
whole self.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

13 Comments

Filed under Uncategorized

December 20, 2021 · 2:44 pm

There Is No Question – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: istockphoto.com – Apple tree split in two seasons: summer and winter

“In the depth of winter I finally learned, that within me there lay an invincible summer.” Albert Camus

There Is No Question

Can one ask such a question,
whether it is possible for 
winter and summer to be 
conjoined as fleshly twins,
surely there is no question,
the answer is obvious,
my winters are gladdened by
the presence of summer and
my summers are tempered by
winter's cool curl of memory's 
turn towards feeling.


Copyright 2021 ©Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®

20 Comments

Filed under awareness, Free Verse, life, poem, quote, seasons, Uncategorized

Tagged as , ,