The unmarkedtombstones leavean impression The elemental needto tell someonethat you were hereThe same reason the cave people in Lascaux wrote on wallsThe eternal battle betweensimplicity and pride the primal urge to leave a markon the earth, and the spiritualquest to disappear entirely George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications […]
folk memory
The feeling of difference
To the ancient ones, numbers were feelingsof addition and subtraction,and without counting, they knew how equality felt. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry Journal, Chronogram Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, The Angle at St. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA […]
Towards a Biology of God
Such a familiar sound.Black bear digging for pine cones.The folding of the earth’s crust, no onewas there to show them how to tie a knot orsew a pelt. Under extreme pressure, the edgesof eons rubbed against each other, the touch ofan earthquake on the elbow and a volcano inbetween the toes. Deep trenches keeping us fromseeing each other. […]
I know This Forest
There is a forest thatI can’t get away from. A forest of tombs stillas tree trunks. Thereis a forest. The smell of red pine needles-the pathways of my ancestors. There is a forest. When I am not alive like I usuallyam. There is a forest. When I step in minktracks, I know these tracks in my tendons.I know this forest. It pounds into […]
Postcard from Raymond: Taking Care of Your Magic Dragon
There is a magical dragon dwelling inside every one of us. Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow’s Puff the Magic Dragon, which was masterfully sung by folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, is a melancholic song about losing the capability for imagination, for wonder. When I first heard this song as a kid, I thought that […]