June 30, 2026 · 10:33 pm

A Tanka by Paul Vincent Cannon

For Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 71, Photo And Tanka, Willow has asked us to take a look through some of your old photos and pick one with a special memory. It can be any sort of memory, happy, sad, scary, shocking, hilarious or thoughtful… anything at all. Once you have found your memory, work out what season it’s from. Choose words that represent your season. For example, in my poem below, I used summer words for the Northern Hemisphere: blooming, bright, and growing. They don’t have to be kigo words, just words to represent the season. I would love it if we could all use the tanka form. You can write a tanka—one, two, or three. Willow wrote a Somonka: A sequence made of exactly two tanka (also called a double tanka).

Photo: Bluff Knoll 2016, a major hike and climb for my son Jon and I, something we had both wanted to do for some time.

Form: Tanka (5-7-5-7-7)

headed to the clouds
naturally it rained midway
daunting 60° sections
summer base with winter peak
summited our heads in cloud

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

11 Comments

Filed under bush walking, camping, clouds, memory, Mountaineering, poem, Tanka

June 29, 2026 · 8:43 pm

A Tanka by Paul Vincent Cannon

Image by Vuong Viet from Pixabay

Form: Tanka (5-7-5-7-7) 

by day the sun glows
when dark moon softly enchants 
night or day lucent 
lanterns offer extra light
paper cranes take safer route





Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

Originally posted for Tanka Thursday – Lantern at @pvcannon.bsky.social

7 Comments

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June 28, 2026 · 7:49 pm

Dropping Out – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo by Euan Cameron on Unsplash


Dropping Out

Voices competing
barista barks
our long table 
clink clanks and
bustles with news,
views, requests 
wood on tiles 
excruciating
urgent intensities,
I let it all wash over
drifting into an under 
water blub, blub blur
beyond the reef 
to a much needed
Nothingness.





Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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Filed under Free Verse, poem, Rest, Silence

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June 27, 2026 · 9:17 pm

Pointed – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: found on X



Pointed

Saturday venue 
wood fire crackling
rain on corrugated
trees glistening with crystals
framed in windows
overhead projector hums
coffee permeates
announcing indulgence,
something catches my eye
shining bright,
I move to retrieve it
lose sight of it 
reorient and see again,
needle and thread
lodged in axminster,
a stitch in time? 

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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June 26, 2026 · 9:43 pm

P-ars-ing About – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Grace is hosting Meeting The Bar with an invitation to revisit the venerable tradition of the Ars Poetica, Latin for “the art of poetry.” Traditionally, an Ars Poetica is a poem about poetry itself: why we write, what poems do, how language works upon us, and what we hope our words might accomplish. From Horace to Archibald MacLeish and countless contemporary poets, writers have used the form to explore their relationship with the craft. An Ars Poetica often becomes a personal manifesto, a meditation, or a declaration of faith in poetry itself.

dVerse Poets – MTB – Ars Poetica Revisited

Image by AS Photography from Pixabay

P-ars-ing About

What a journey a poem is,
from the moment I open the shed
to the first slice of tilth 
with sharp spade,
a turning of the soil
over and over in my mind,
last I saw a skeleton
I wondered how it was 
that thoughts get lost 
in so small a space
as if deliberately hiding 
around corners,
then comes the mower
a shortening of verse 
verging on the radicle,
so too the secateurs 
here a phrase
there a word
a whole scansion pruned,
after a morning’s work
I look over the labours
sometimes noting the 
fine lines,
while there are times
I admit, that the 
mark is missed and 
I rake over the soil again.

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

21 Comments

Filed under Ars Poetica, Free Verse, Gardening, poem, poetry, writing

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June 26, 2026 · 12:14 am

Glory Days – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: from the State Library of Western Australia archive – a band called the Elks playing at the Charles Hotel in 1980, one of the many pub-rock venues I frequented.

Glory Days

Grime street cowboys 
in black leather chaps 
corral smoke and 
cinder dust down 
side alleys 
where footfall
is Christopher Lee, 
unhinged thoughts
the rust is not
just the clinging
smog sludge rain,
it is indeed piss soaked
cretaceous evidence of
the ordinariness
of hollow vodka dreams
resting in puke mounded 
spittle gutters
butts still smoking,
laughter echoes like
bullets on concrete,
sweat soaked dancers
loud lacy mistresses
pencil tight unbending
flutters fancy
stocking tops
white thighs
black looks
stumbling, hammered heads
clock strikes judgement 
after midnight,
how glorious. 

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

Originally posted for #PoemsAbout #OutAfterMidnight at @pvcannon.bsky.social

4 Comments

Filed under Free Verse, history, music, poem, Pub Rock

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June 24, 2026 · 9:25 pm

Whether The Weather a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Mish is hosting Poetics – “You have probably assumed I am asking you to use juxtaposition in your poem today. Correct! In addition to that, I am offering you a visual element for inspiration.

From the images below, choose two that YOU feel could create a contrast. Then use them as a foundation to build your poem. Combine sensory details that conflict with each other. Blend the concrete with the abstract. You can even shift between environments or periods of time. A shorter poem may have greater impact, but of course any style you would like to work with is fine. If you are not moved by any of the images provided, feel free to use your own.

Where do the images take you? How do they compare? How do they relate? Could metaphors explain how they are connected? What is the message? Is there an element of hypocrisy or irony? Could one of them be the subject and the other, the atmosphere, mood or setting? What happens when you blend them? Do they ignite tension that needs resolution?”

dVerse Poets – Poetics – A Tale Of Two Images

I chose the following images

felipeaugusto-earth-2938017 and 2020/08/plants-5335777_1920.jpg



Whether The Weather

As to the question
will it or won’t it
my window offers
the best possibility
of approximating 
an answer, whereas
old barometer seems
somewhat churlish,
unlikely to deliver
anything precise while
weather app is
inconclusive with lots
of maybe, maybe not
truth is, something’s
going to happen but then
another question arises,
will it be feast or famine?

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

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Filed under Free Verse, Humour, poem, rain, weather

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June 23, 2026 · 9:03 pm

Old Salt – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

For Tanka Tuesday Poetry Challenge No. 70, The Lai, Melissa has invited us to use the syllabic form the lai (pronounced lay) which is a French form that is comprised of nine lines. It has “a” and “b” end rhymes and each line has a specific syllable count.

The rhyme scheme of the lai is as follows: aabaabaab. The lines ending with an “a” rhyme have five syllables and the lines ending with a “b” rhyme have two syllables.

Photo: taken at Lake Campion in April 2025, this lake is part of an extensive ancient salt lake system across the eastern wheatbelt and through the goldfields, today it would have one name but the colonial explorers thought there were several interrelated autonomous lakes. This lake system is still harvested for domestic and agricultural salt use.

Form: Lai (nine lines aabaabaab; a lines have 5 syllables, b lines have 2 syllables)

Old Salt

Vast inland salt lake
harvested for flake
to grind,
please don’t drink can’t slake,
risk of burn no fake
of mind,
of this what to make
it’s no piece of cake,
my bind.

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

20 Comments

Filed under bush walking, camping, clouds, Country, Lai, nature, poem, Salt, salt lake

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June 23, 2026 · 5:19 pm

Bloody Ducks – Haibun by Paul Vincent Cannon

At dVerse Frank is hosting Haibun Monday with an invitation to write honouring the first solstice for 2026. For more info on Haibun follow the link below.

dVerse Poets – Haibun – First Solstice

Photo: Wood Ducks taken at Bunbury Wetlands in spring 2018.

Bloody Ducks

The heat has gone out of the days but I’m still clinging to the idea of the sun. I refuse myself a jumper, leave the raincoat on its hook, I’m not lighting a fire or using the AC, I’m tempted to buy a lettuce and eschew the idea of cooking vegetables. 

I took the car downtown this morning, so warm and cloudless, no wind. I was buoyant until, on my way home, the ducks betrayed me. They do this every year.  They leave the lake nearby and start grazing the burb. Early showers have awakened the slugs, one of their favourite foods. There they were, along my verge, harbingers of winter. And in that moment my denial fades.

winter uncertain
solstice is no guarantee
ducks herding the clouds 

Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

21 Comments

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June 22, 2026 · 8:15 pm

Yes – a poem by Paul Vincent Cannon

Photo: Boranup Forest – a Kari forest (not Wandoo) but stunning tall trees (Australia’s tallest native trees).




Yes

I remember that first time
sitting under the wandoo 
looking out over the valley
lapsing into silence for
what seemed an eon
that was half an hour,
then feeling an ending,
I stood and raised my arms
to the canopy
to the sky
and uttered one word
yes.





Copyright 2026 ©️Paul Vincent Cannon
All Rights Reserved ®️

29 Comments

Filed under Bakers Hill, bush walking, Daybreak, Free Verse, meditation, mindfulness, poem, Southbourne Farm

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