Photo: Peak of Bluff Knoll in top left, cloud coming in, by the time we got there it was shrouded in cloud but so worth the climb.
What will You Shout About?
So
with intention
you climbed the mountain,
along the way you
thought of every thing
and how it all worked
or didn’t,
and you reached the top
though not without scars,
so
now that you’re here
at the peak
with no one else around,
what are you going to
shout about?
Copyright ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under Free Verse, poem, reflection
Grand Narratives
The grain runs full length,
once it would have been
fresh, light and smooth
now it carries many stories
its scars and dents testimony
to every known opinion
every fantasy expressed,
there are small notches
along each edge
accidental, intentional?
patches where the varnish
has worn thin and coffee
has remained strong,
here stands a repository
of grand narratives
even love declared -
someone’s heart is carved
at one end like a flesh wound,
fortunately I am spared
any splinters,
my musing ends
as my coffee arrives
and the table holds
my thoughts.
Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under awareness, Free Verse, life, poem, reflection, Story
Photo: found at betterup.com
Form: Tanka (5-7-5-7-7)
primordial sludge
disturbances agitate silt
the old darkness rises
feelings held by inward breath
my heart is clear once again
Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under life, meditation, mindfulness, poem, reflection, Tanka
Photo: From a 2018 camping trip through the Eastern Wheatbelt, a gnamma hole. Gnamma is an indigenous term for a naturally occurring rock cavity, hole or depression capable of holding water. This one, near Nungarin, is reputed to be over three metres.
Form: a Cherita
ai li created the cherita poetry form in June 1997, so the form is now 29 years old. The official guidelines:
“Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale. A cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse.”
The order may also be inverted or turned upside-down: 3-2-1.
A cherita is always untitled and without rhyme.
The bathroom mirror so stark.
My face in the rock pool reflects a
shy softer self that yearns to return.
It’s hard to pinpoint when I put the
armour on but somehow I forgot to
take it off again, it seems now is the time.
Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under awareness, bush walking, Cherita, gnamma hole, poem, reflection
At dVerse Lillian is hosting Poetics with an invitation to write a poem using sewing terminology – I’m going to list some terms/terminology used in sewing, and I’d like you to use at least one of them in your poem for today. Bonus points if you use more than one! The topic and form of your poem is up to you. And obviously, you simply use the word/words within your poem. The word/terms will adapt their meaning to the topic and flow of your poem. In other words, the poem is not about sewing! It simply will include at least one of the terms below – blending in to the sense of your poem. I’ve capitalized the words so you can quickly see your choices. I’ve also included the meaning of the term as it relates to sewing….just in case you’re interested. So here’s the list you can choose from: applique, backstitch, bias, binding, bobbin, buttonhole, darning, dart, ease, facing, feed dogs, gather, hem, nap, seam, seam ripper.
dVerse Poets – Poetics – Come Sew With Me …. Sort Of
Image by 👀 Mabel Amber, who will one day from Pixabay
I'm No Longer That Size
Surely no one buys a shirt
with hems, seams coming
undone, stitching unravelling
fabric fraying,
we might take it back to the
store and argue for a replacement,
checking it thoroughly this time,
if only we could take the world back -
we can't because we did the
damage and so the guarantee is void,
same with our representatives
we willingly played into that con,
but when I look in the mirror I feel
happy that my seams are all
unravelling, the binding which held
me in place for so long has
given way -
I'm no longer that size and I
must try on some new ideas.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under awareness, Free Verse, poem, reflection
At dVerse Merril is hosting Prosery where we are offered a line from a poem to include within a piece of prose. The line Merril has chosen is – “The granites and schists of my dark and stubborn country.” from ‘The Hill Burns’ by Nan Shepherd.
dVerse Poets – Prosery – Dark And Stubborn Country
Note: I would encourage you to read some of her poetry. I also enjoyed her Cairngorm memoir (it has the quality or feel of an almanac) ‘The Living Mountain’ her prose often resembles a prose poem.
Reflection In Rock
When you live on the land it pays to know your rocks. Granite resists diamond tipped drills and blades, schists are resistant but tend to fragment under impact. I liked both for creating dry-stone walls around the farmhouse, granite was best for ramps and foundations. Both could fracture a plow disk. Granites and schists are also water collectors and form part of the songlines for the indigenous peoples, they were gathering places – birthing rocks for the women, initiation rocks for young men. So too the rocks are ecologies. The granites and schists of my dark stubborn country cause me to reflect on my own nature. Strength is critical for survival, too much causes resistance. Where am I resistant? Where might I crumble? Am I open enough to be part of an ecology, a community of strength that is yet porous, welling up with life?
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Photo: Taken September, 2018 – a solid chunk of granite! Taken at Datjoin Reserve.
Photo: Redbank Gorge, NT, July 2017. A mixture of sandstone, gneiss, schist and granite.
Filed under awareness, bush walking, camping, farming, prose, reflection, Uncategorized
At dVerse Frank is hosting the Haibun with an invitation to write a haibun that references transformation.
dVerse Poets – Haibun – Transformation
Photo: found at smartgreengarden.com
Tending My Life
Feelings rise, emotions evolve and disrupt even in the nicest of ways, but it’s not he moment or the day, it’s my equilibrium even by a thin fleeting slice. It’s all mine, the frogs in the pond might sense my feelings but they don’t necessarily share them, and if the did would I ever know? As I look out the window emotion is walking along the street, driving up the road,, watering the garden, weeding, delivering the mail, heading to school.
It doesn’t necessarily relate solely to anger, though it might, and when any emotion wells up like a spring coming to the surface, they say to split logs, and that may be good (if you have logs) but I find my wholeness in the garden or in my writing. These are places of ponder and reflection. This becomes a time of honest review, a portal to understanding myself, my actions, responses, outcomes. As I circle the spiral of my own story it takes on new avenues of light. These are the moments of the most imperfect transformations, like the caterpillar into a butterfly with one less leg or a frayed right wing. The emotions are accounted for, understood, even transcended, but a trace remains as authentic ground transforming me slowly.
feelings pool deeply
welling completely through me
slicing spade transforms.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under awareness, contemplative, Gardening, Haibun, Haiku, hope, life, reflection, writing
Photo: One of many trails through the State Forest, Mundaring, June 2025
I know It
As with the inward
to outward breath
where does the past end
my present begin, will
my shadow speed up
to catch me, and
what of my self -
is it incontrovertible
as lovers are whole,
I'm not as sure now
as I was then, but
I do know
something
is changing.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under Free Verse, life, philosophy, poem, reflection
At dVerse Merril is hosting Poetics with and invitation to two options –
dVerse Poets – Poetics – Reflections, Reflecting
Claude Monet, The Studio Boat, 1876, Oil on canvas
On Any One Day
Oh I have so many questions
but for the main part the doors
are always open for interpretation
in the moment where I find
myself distracted, daubing,
reflecting on what life is all about
while wondering which of
these is in fact the real one,
some would venture that the
more solid, defined representation
is reality, while others would
conjecture that the other less
defined, even blurred version
approximated a reality,
I warm to the rippled version
of right brain offering, but then
I know that is the best version
of myself on any one day.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under art, awareness, boats, Ekphrastic, Free Verse, life, poem, reflection
Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 26 – Multiple Meanings
For Tanka Tuesday Yvette has invited us to write a tanka or experimental tanka and to include a multiple meaning word (list provided) for more detail follow the link above.
I have chosen the word harbour and the form is tanka (5-7-5-7-7)
Image by Peter Olexa from Pixabay
When life becomes gales
and black waves darken wild rage
I seek safe harbour
in my port of reflection
where I nurture thoughtful sails.
Copyright 2025 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️
Filed under awareness, life, mindfulness, poem, psychology, reflection, sea, Tanka, writing
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