i learned
to throw rocks
up into the air
above my head
because this way
they would always
come back to me
no matter the injury
i wouldn’t be alone
though blood flowed
red across my face
Mr. misanthropic disgrace
i still had my stone
and a broken bone
to while away
the hours of this life

I’m getting a ton of hits on my blog from North Bergen, New Jersey. I wonder if I have my very own stalker? 😉

Since North Bergen is a major VPN infrastructure hub (especially for ExpressVPN) I suspect it is someone wanting to read my site but not wanting to be known for having read it. This is odd to me – I am a pretty friendly guy. Would love to connect with my avid reader. Feel free to comment here.

Cheers.

I think sometimes
It’s best to close your eyes
To turn away from pain
And let it happen
Beyond a thickening veil
Or else it buries you alive
Crushing you beneath the weight
Of unstoppable truth;
A light so bright
It turns you to ash.

What happens
When you cage a people
Take their children
Take their mothers
Their fathers and brothers
Take their grandparents
Crowd them in cattlecars
Beat them, bury them, gas them
And turn them to ash
Leaving them to the sky’s embrace?

You create a new thing
With iron teeth
With crushing claws
And a claxon cry of –
NEVER AGAIN!

What happens
When you imprison people
When you bomb people
Shoot their children
Shoot their mothers
Their fathers and brothers
Take their grandparents
Force them to the sea
Starve them, bulldoze them
Crush their brittle bones
Leaving them to the earth’s embrace?

You create a new thing…

My column in this week’s Winkler Morden and Altona Rhineland Voice newspapers along with a couple of rare gems – two great letters responding to my column about Mark Carney. 😉

after a time
one can wonder
if a thing dried up
was ever there at all
or if it was a mirage
like water in the desert
tempting you toward what?
death perhaps.

the well is empty now
of the contents of the past
those blood-salt waters
that left the throat parched
and the body desparate
for more of the same
the more you drank,
the more you drank;
but those days are gone
and the well still glimmers
full now of the present
to drink from til’ refreshed
without need to return
unless you want to
and i do, from time to time
to pause and look
and see myself staring back –
content.

After a deep analysis of the poetry found on Cantelon.org (the blog of Peter Cantelon), the work reveals a distinct “free-rhyme” style that blends raw, confessional vulnerability with stark, elemental imagery.

​Based on the themes, structure, and the author’s own stated influences, here is an analysis of which poets these works most closely resemble:

​1. Charles Bukowski (The “Dirty Realist” Influence)

​Cantelon’s work has a strong “blue-collar” poetic soul that mirrors Bukowski.

• ​The Sound: Sparse, direct, and unvarnished. Like Bukowski, Cantelon often writes about the grit of life—boxing, physical pain, poverty, and the “shitty words” of reality.
• ​Evidence: In poems like “Newton’s Cradle,” where he discusses taking punches to the head and the “force of this life” transferred through fists, the cadence and subject matter are echoes of Bukowski’s The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over the Hills.

​2. Irving Layton (The Gritty Canadian Romantic)

​As a Canadian poet, Cantelon heavily references Irving Layton, and the influence is audible in his more assertive, visceral pieces.

• ​The Sound: There is a “muscularity” to the language. Layton was known for being “never far from tears” but also fiercely aggressive in his imagery.
• ​Evidence: Cantelon’s use of words like “sinew,” “bone,” and “scouring” mirrors Layton’s obsession with the physical body and the harshness of the natural world.

​3. Sylvia Plath / Anne Sexton (Confessionalism)

​The deeply personal “I remember” sequences and the focus on childhood trauma, mental anguish, and domestic shadows align him with the Confessionalists.

• ​The Sound: Rhythmic repetitions of trauma and a focus on “the dark.” The way he lists memories of abuse and fear has the same hypnotic, haunting quality found in Plath’s Ariel.
• ​Evidence: The 2022 posts where he recounts childhood memories (police at the door, “words like welfare”) use the “I remember” litany that acts as a psychological unburdening, a hallmark of this school.

​4. Edgar Allan Poe (Gothic Mood & Alliteration)

​While much of his work is modern free verse, there is a recurring “Gothic” undercurrent that reaches back to Poe.

• ​The Sound: A fascination with “darker days,” “moon-bleached skin,” and the “dying of the light.”
• ​Evidence: In poems like “i like the darker days,” the mood is atmospheric and brooding, relying on the juxtaposition of light and shadow in a way that feels like a 21st-century update to the Romantic/Gothic tradition.

​5. Kenji Miyazawa (The Spiritual Stoic)

​Cantelon explicitly cites Miyazawa as an influence, and this shows in his more observational, humble “landscape” poems.

• ​The Sound: Quiet, repetitive, and selfless.
• ​Evidence: His translation/reimagining of Miyazawa’s “Not Losing to the Rain” informs his own 2026 project to focus on “landscapes instead of the world within.” The poems that focus on a “blade of grass” or “turquoise skies” have the minimalist, Zen-like clarity of Miyazawa.

​Summary of the “Cantelon Sound”

​If you were to mix these together, his poetry sounds like a conversation between a Zen monk and a retired boxer in a dive bar. It is “Free-Rhyme”—it doesn’t follow strict sonnet rules, but it has a rhythmic “hook” that catches the ear, much like Dylan Thomas (whom he also admires), specifically in the way he uses “rage” and “light” as central motifs.