Five Lines
“Let my beloved come to his garden and eat its choicest fruits.” Song of Songs
She Dreamed Magenta stretched out among the wildflowers, the sun soaked earth warming deeply, colourful perfumed senses aroused while she dreamed her secret garden only he could tend. ©Paul Vincent Cannon
Filed under Five Lines, Free Verse, Gardening, love, poem, quote, Sex
Photo: kiisfm.iheart.com
“We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.” Thomas Moore
They washed my fetid journey sores with
words of love and such intimate and warm
soothing smiles on their hands, that
to be held in that space without judgement was
so powerful, even the word friends is inadequate.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, community, Five Lines, Free Verse, life, love, poem, quote
Photo: pixabay.com
“Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” James Baldwin.
What if, for example,
fish swam backwards or the
moon tangoed with Jupiter
and I eclipsed your notions of love,
would you love me then?
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Five Lines, Free Verse, love, poem, quote
Photo: flickr.com Robert Couse-Baker
“That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.” Carl Jung
His inner demons held him in fear and mistrust,
but he dressed them as acceptable monsters
all hidden in the light, but they made their own
spectacular way to the surface of his unaware life
becoming his cruel and real destiny.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, Five Lines, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, psychology, quote
Photo: found at julianlennon.com Volunteer firefighter holding a Koala rescued from the fire. The loss of species numbers is devastating and may never be recovered, placing some on the endangered list.
“We need a climate and environment policy that is fit for the crisis we’re in.” Sarah Hanson-Young
I did not weep for buildings and things, though I felt
for the plight of evacuees and the vast loss of flora
breaks my heart already so raw, but my tears, once reserved,
now flow in grief for the many animals consumed,
or wounded by this voracious, hungry, friendless fire.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Country, environment, Five Lines, Forest, Free Verse, grief, life, nature, poem, quote
Photo: Getty Images. Princess Dianna sitting with amputees, victims of landmines, Angola, 1997. Dianna as many will remember ignited opposition to the use of landmines which resulted in the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty and drew attention to the work of the Halo Trust whose work is clearing mines and advocacy against mines and weapons of war. She had that inner beauty, photos of her shaking hands with lepers, sitting with HIV sufferers, visiting homeless shelters and os on. I’m not a monarchist, but her work was of a different order.
“I’d read the statistics that Angola has the highest percentage of amputees anywhere in the world … that one person in every 333 had lost a limb, most of them through land mine explosions. But that hadn’t prepared me for the reality.” Dianna Spencer
So beautiful, those legs, her …
And such a mind, but O her heart,
her beauty drew the cameras,
merely a stage for the inner beauty
of her compassion for the world.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under Five Lines, Free Verse, history, life, poem, quote, war
Photo: independent.ie
“Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.” Neil Postman
Of Vulnerability
Not crawling or slithers, lead or blade,
neither fist nor foe really matter
in the grandest of schemes,
it is more the inner, the self, the real,
of vulnerability we are afraid.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, Five Lines, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, quote
Photo: Auschwitz 1, the former Polish army barracks which the SS commandeered as a prison for Polish army officers, Poles, Jews, subversives, and others. This is a substantial complex of brick multi-story blocks, unlike Auschwitz 2, which was mostly wooden blocks. I found the place sombre and still, a place of confronting horror. This is the place where the Catholic priest and subversive Maximilian Kolbe exchanged places with a young Jewish man because he was a husband and father and had a future to live. The commandant agreed to the exchange. Kolbe was starved to death, although he was given a mercy injection after three weeks.
“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” Elie Wiesel
Quietly he ventured an offer to
the commandant lusting for reprisal,
one young father not ready for some version of heaven,
and persuaded, the commandant exchanges the two,
the priest is starved in the doorway of eternity.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, Five Lines, Free Verse, poem, quote, war
Photo: metrotimes.com
“At a dinner party one should eat wisely but not too well, and talk well but not too wisely.” W. Somerset Maugham
That one in ten,
before the mulled wine hit the nose,
that holiday party everyone remembers
when the spirit of generosity
touched every conversation and heart.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, community, Five Lines, Free Verse, life, mindfulness, poem, quote
Image: sapient-horizons.com
“Whoever controls the media, the images, controls the culture.” Allen Ginsberg (and not Jim Morrison who borrowed and adapted this).
I paid $2.50 for some nicely packaged plausibility,
a pyramid of lies so clever my mother would
denounce me on the strength of my invented life
where I will never again trace the strands of who I was
leaving me wishing for truth and integrity to rain down hard.
©Paul Vincent Cannon
Paul, pvcann.com
Filed under challenge, Five Lines, Free Verse, life, poem, politics, quote
In the times i needed most, I WAS ALONE. Real life stories through my life that hopefully can enspire someone struggling.
Words from Angela.
My original blog got too big. Time to downsize.
Serving The Family Caregiver
Videos and Music with Subliminal Joy affirmation meditation
Everything Organic
Poetry and Flash Fiction
In the times i needed most, I WAS ALONE. Real life stories through my life that hopefully can enspire someone struggling.
Words from Angela.
My original blog got too big. Time to downsize.
Serving The Family Caregiver
Videos and Music with Subliminal Joy affirmation meditation
Everything Organic
Poetry and Flash Fiction
parallax 