Photo by Klim Musalimov on Unsplash
Not Yet
We can flick a switch
on or off,
light can be
manufactured
we've been doing that
for millennia
but darkness
well we can’t
manufacture that
the stars forbid it,
we can only dispel it
even contrive it,
but there is no
turning it on,
not yet.
Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under Science, environment, poem, Free Verse, light, darkness
At dVerse Lillian is hosting the Quadrille (44 words sans title) with an invitation to write a poem including the word, or a form of the word, bloom.
dVerse Poets – Quadrille – Come Bloom With Me!!!
Photo: Taken at Talgomine Reserve, spring, 2018, everlastings, kilometres of them throughout the wheat belt.
Let Beauty Rise
Mao said
let a hundred flowers bloom
but I say let there be millions
in every corner where
misery and oppression
have choked life and beauty,
may they rise everywhere to
declare an end to the
rape of nature and the
murder of humanity.
Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Photo: found on reddit.com
So Unaware
Frogs in a bucket,
you don’t say,
keep it cool
just in case
they fail
to retrace their
steps home,
how can anyone
live so naive?
Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under environment, Gardening, ignorance, life, nature, poem, Uncategorized
Anecdotal And Not Peer Reviewed
I'm unsure of what I'm saying here,
but I'll say it anyway
why do people
book a restaurant
eat maybe a fifth
maybe a quarter
a third
half the
main course,
never the whole -
what's with that?
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under environment, food, Free Verse, poem, waste
For Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 43, Ekphrastic Poetry, Willow has invited us to work with a provided photo to write an ekphrastic poem.
Image from canva.com
Form: Choka (5-7-5-7-5-7-5-7-7) with Envoy – Tanka (5-7-5-7-7)
that's a good question
I'm not sure I can answer
it all began when
we chose to be ruled over
by of all the choices
we might have possibly made
an ego driven
shadow in denial of
intrinsic value for all
deserts grow slowly
as trees and creatures retreat
to the edges of life
banished by lust curdled cries
hey don't look at me like that
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under Choka, climate change, ecology, Ekphrastic, environment, nature, poem
Photo: found at plantbasednews.com
Trivial Pursuit
Is this the future we
once dreamed of,
the one where we watch
our self-congratulations
burn to the ground
because we have cloth
bags and energy saver
light globes,
the trivia that stands
in the way of a more
demanding reality
hidden by a death wish.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under climate change, ecology, environment, Free Verse, poem, protest
At dVerse Bjorn is hosting Open Link Night, the night we choose a poem to post.
Image by Sergio Cerrato – Italia from Pixabay
Form: Tanka (5-7-5-7-7)
I learned circles
from hedgerows lakes and forest
father gardening
from moon to sun and between
why make the circle dead straight
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under climate change, environment, Forest, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, river, sea, seasons, Tanka
At dVerse Kim is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write a poem of our own name for a micro season – for much more detail and resource follow the link below:
dVerse Poets – Poetics – Creating Our Own Micro Seasons
Photo: One of the story boards at Windy Harbour, this one showing the Indigenous Noongar seasons. The indigenous peoples of the South West of Western Australia have six seasons which make much more sense than the imported and imposed four seasons. I wrote a bit about this in 2017 in my piece Enlighten.
In A Time Of Beginnings
In a time of beginnings
as rain storms recede
cabbage moth arises
drawn to tender crucifers,
first snake slithers potent,
white and pink starlet blooms
herald fruit, and
nestled in their branches
are many recycled homes
of wrens and wagtails
whose eggs are moving,
while tiny green specks
peek through earth's
thick, wet, gritty crust,
blooms, yes, but also
the promise of
abundance for the table,
this is the season of
birth pangs,
the wheel of life
not yet near its apex,
everything now poised
and signalling
a time of beginnings.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under awareness, environment, Free Verse, life, nature, poem, seasons
You there!
What's that you say?
You'd never hurt a fly,
how could I possibly imagine
that you might harm your dog
or hurt the neighbour's cat
let alone the wild things that
creep or flutter in your yard
day and night, night and day,
yet you still choose to buy
and use the very things
which will choke the life
out of every living thing.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Image by Tongpradit Charoenphon from Pixabay
Tanaga
A Filipino Form
Trad. Tanaga are an untitled single four line stanza, syllabic – 7-7-7-7, with a monorhyme scheme of aaaa.
Tanaga asks a question, seeks an answer , uses metaphor.
Of course modernity adds and changes so today there can be several stanzas and the rhyme scheme can be alternated or combined thus: aaaa-bbbb, or aabb-ccdd.
I found a feather today
the wind blew and made it play
young bird don't let the rest fray
messenger for future way
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under bush walking, environment, life, nature, poem, Tanaga
Sunskrit Rai
De l'existence formelle à l'existence informelle, j'habille poétiquement le monde, ou mieux, le mets à nu.
Celebrating the Art of Syllabic Poetry
A haiku journal based in Aotearoa NZ
Celebrating the haiku and related poetry of Chad Lee Robinson
As Always, More to Come
a monthly journey in a theme that's 17 syllables or less
All things flash fiction
Turning trauma into triumph since 1981.
parallax 