My snow dirtied mind, squandered with rain and dirt,is ready.These ancient trails call my nameand I am ready.To be alone in a temple of deep space, my cardinal ears are ready.Where there is no religion but God and sun and land and the scent of boiled arrowroot,gathering on my neck and chest,I am ready.I am ready. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, […]
world
The Earth Is An Ordinary Friend
the oughtness of an ant&the secret codes of Hawthorn treesThe way Socrates said yes to the hemlockshe was an ordinary friend. That feelingof being stuckin paradise 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, […]
At the Edge of the Sea (for Rachel Carson)
Death is the one event that everyone knowsnever happens the way it is supposed to.Death is a secret realm. It has an entrance with fountains scented with lavender masking the stenchof blood. On the loudspeakers, the rhythms of eternity.On the front door, a quote by Rachel Carson: each grain on a beach is the result of processesthat go […]
If the World Falls Down
What happens if the world falls down?If Atlas is no longer around to hold it,is anything or anyone strong enough?When Atlas gave up his burden we allpicked it up like a cannonball until ourshoulders began to hurt, and our back gave out, and we began to ask: What if I should drop it?Each and every one of […]
Global Travels, Local Practice
This month I am far from my birth home in Montana and my adoptive home in Seattle. I am in China, currently in a monastery outside of Ningbo called “Golden Mountain.” As I told a friend recently when discussing my travels, there is a saying, attributed to Native American wisdom, that a person should not […]