Tag Archives: Open Link Night

June 26, 2020 · 2:33 pm

Other Voices – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Bjorn at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night with an invitation to post a poem of our choice. dVerse Poets

Photo: unsplash.com

“How silently the heart pivots on its hinge.” Jane Hirshfield

Other Voices

The house was not just any house,
it was of me and I of it,
intimacy was every sunken board,
chip and crack of age, and
today for the umpteenth time
the back door squeaked in
greeting at days end,
perhaps that my mind was weary,
and the torture too hard to bear,
that I took the cannister and oiled
that squeak to a silence bare,
peace reigned in all but heart,
I missed that voice,
disturber of life,
provocative spirit,
it made me think.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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June 12, 2020 · 12:35 pm

To Breathe – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: George Floyd – New York Times

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Grace at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night where we post a poem of our own choice. My choice has been influenced by the poems Grace posted as a reflection on the protests and Floyd’s death. So, I’m reblogging an earlier OLN poem about George Floyd that I wrote in the moment of grief having watched the video of his murder. Still can’t get it out of my mind, can’t erase the anger I feel of the injustice to him, and sadly, for so many. 

"I can't breathe." George Floyd

To Breathe

The tissue of life is delicately thin,
especially when the protectors grin,
arraigned with a knee and
pinned to the ground,
he couldn't breathe;
no judge, no jury,
they refused his cry,
the man needed air,
he was guilty without sin, 
they murdered George Floyd
with a dirty white lie, and
since the moment he stopped,
I have struggled to breathe.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

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May 29, 2020 · 4:54 pm

To Breathe (George Floyd) – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

https://dversepoets.com/2020/05/28/openlinknight267/

Grace at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night, the night we choose a poem of our own to post.

Photo: New York Times


“I Can’t Breathe” George Floyd 

To Breathe

The tissue of life is delicately thin,
especially when the protectors grin,
arraigned with a knee and
pinned to the ground,
he couldn't breathe;
no judge, no jury,
they refused his cry,
the man needed air,
we was guilty, without sin,
they murdered George Floyd
with a dirty white lie and
since the moment he stopped,
I have struggled to breathe.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

I struggle with this, I wept for this man, for us, for life!

Paul, pvcann.com

94 Comments

Filed under death, Elegy, Free Verse, grief, life, poem, quote, Restorative Justice, Uncategorized

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May 15, 2020 · 2:15 pm

And Yet – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Mish is hosting Open Link Night at dVerse – the night we choose a poem to post.

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Photo: unsplash.com

 

“It is the denial of death that is partially responsible for people living empty purposeless lives ….”  Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

And Yet

She was never shy
and so we kept hidden
somewhere out back for
her own sake, you understand,
too brazen, taken to impulsive acts,
impetuous, ill-mannered,
an embarrassment to us all,
but she got our recently,
crept through her window
to play in the streets,
lifting her skirts at all,
laughing derisively as
they run, as run they should
in this season of the
end of everything where we
have hidden from ourselves,
while death has cast her shadow
and yet returned us to life.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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May 1, 2020 · 4:40 pm

This Is The Moment – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Kim at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night where we are invited to choose one of our poems to post.

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Photo: soc.utah.edu

 

“In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it.”  Marianne Williamson 

This Is The Moment

Bated breath I hold,
waiting to wave goodbye
to those century-old habits
that have imposed themselves
from the dusty corners
of my existence as familiars,
waiting for something
meaningful which lies
beyond the self,
communities of care,
where nothing is jaundiced,
and no one is consumed,
this is the moment
where we turn to each
other.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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April 17, 2020 · 2:17 pm

Opened – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Lillian at dVerse is hosting OPen Link Night where there is an opportunity to post a poem of your choosing.

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Photo: dreamstime.com

 

“I don’t believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive.”   Joseph Campbell

Opened

I traveled to a conversation
wrapped in brown paper
to honour details of
ruins punctured by dull rain
on a fractured landscape of desire,
where feelings opened beyond
the sheets of comfort of small lives
to lyrical and generous overtures
which lead me to dance a
perspective of time that
suggests an eternity.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

31 Comments

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April 3, 2020 · 4:16 pm

The Real – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

At dVerse Grace is hosting Open Link Night where we are invited to post a poem of our own choosing.

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Photo: shutterstock.com
“They are the chosen ones who have surrendered.”  Rumi

The Real

Ordinarily, power navigates life,
and we only surrender in that
moment when we can go no more,
because surely that is safe and
we have dignified our ego
and justified our place,
but the alchemy of life
conspires against us,
drawing us to rise to
the real hero’s journey of
courageous humility and that
strange discomfort of
scant attention to self.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com.

14 Comments

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March 20, 2020 · 3:01 pm

Paying Attention – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Grace at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night, the night we contribute a poem without a prompt.

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Photo: Lake Ballard, near Menzies

“I dwell in possibility.”  Emily Dickinson

Paying Attention

In the midst of hostility
where the dry arid ground
desired to earth my bones
and break my roots,
there I conquered my fear,
that petty thief,
taking shelter in myself,
living into the
trace of thoughts embodied
in my ordeal of solitude,
paying attention to the
emerging, shimmering, horizon,
beckoning,
smiling.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

35 Comments

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March 6, 2020 · 2:55 pm

Petit Coin (small corner) – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Grace at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night – a night to post a poem of your own choosing.

11-Relaxing-and-Cozy-Reading-Corner-Decor-Ideas.jpg

Photo: found on redecorationroom.com

 

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”  Aldous Huxley

 

Petit Coin (small corner)

I wanted a corner just for myself,
a grammar of sanctuary
giving rise to a language of
resistance to the noise
that has become the world
building a rough nest
in the habitation
where my soul once played
out epiphanies of great joy,
just a small corner of repose
that I might re-member myself.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

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February 21, 2020 · 3:11 pm

Veneer – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

dVerse Poets – Open Link Night

Lillian at dVerse is hosting Open Link Night which means an opportunity to post a poem of your choice.

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Photo: Better Homes and Gardens, January 1951

 

“You can get the man out of the stone -age, but not the stone-age out of the man.”  Abhijit Naskar

 

Veneer

The old panels were tired
and out of place,
relics of the forties and fifties,
so we settled on a transformation,
new ideas, life, and colours,
it was simple really
but so effective,
though lately I’ve noticed
that the laminates are lifting
in some places and the
bakelite’s showing through,
seems that all the transformations
were just that,
insubstantial veneers,
and the laminates are surrendering,
giving way to the old once more.

©Paul Vincent Cannon

Paul, pvcann.com

 

 

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