Beauty is located insidea gravitational tango,one where we become a celibate partner with Jupiter;where we are grateful just to drink from muddy waters,clean as it was first drunk by thecephalopods 400 millionmiles from the Sun. 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 […]
George Cassidy Payne
Cogito Ergo Sum
It never occurred to me beforethat time is shaped like a seashell,or at least the mobile home of a snailmoving along the Jungleland of any forest. If I changed the image to make it more human, time would still look like a spiral, the only differenceis the shape of the fingers which point to it, and the […]
Buddha Taught
Everything is in flux:our body heat, the flowof blood circulating throughthe arteries, even the thoughts in our heads, and the soundsbouncing off objects all around-the fluctuating voice cordsand the atmospheric pressure, too.Everything changing. The musclescontracting, skin cells dying, nailsgrowing, hair follicles too. Creaturescoming and going, the air itself, andthe self itself, all moving. Possessionsdissolving:CarsMoneyClothingBooksComputersHometownsConversationsDrugsAffairsSatisfaction fleeting. George Cassidy […]
Dionysius Moon
He was the twilight, Dionysius Moon.From the spectacle of his bronze darkness, he granted hell into my immortal home.I was basic, but a naked oak tree in the fallof early spring. My efforts at building lay overmy head. Lightness revealed me in happy warmth.He covered my earth and welcomed my thoughts.He meditated loudly to my stomach […]
Messenger
Emerging from liquid,unique in the solar system,as far as I know, I am a messenger, andmy story is far from over.There are still maps tobe formed and surfaced- ideas to be risked, sent likea probe crashinginto the orbit of Mercury.I am still getting closer to the distanceof a different destiny, at least until the fuel runs out. George […]
Why Mars Has No Temples
I know these tracks.Drizzled into a vaulted cistern,I drink its wet methane until it’s only an empty sea again.I know this forest.Its plundering wisdom pours into me like the blazing sunlight emblazons thesails of ancestors who would have killedme if they discovered me. I know it pours into me and I am not alone- all the world is a grave, a reef sheltered grave of […]
At the Core
My heart is a self-published book, likea snake shedding its skin, I have an infinite supply of words and pages toturn over.Yet my whole past andmy entire future has been recordedon a single page.38 years of life.One exposed, solitary page. Stored in metallic ink,each morning reachingamelioration. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included […]
My Mood Feels
like the third glassof a New Belgium juicyhaze IPA. Ancient wisdomon a napkin. Lighting bowlsand random deposit slips onthe top of a Panasonic stereo,one that only plays FM radio and cassette tapes. Like beingtogether with my family, but not requesting the reception that has to follow, orlike a sunflower picked off atthe root, thrown into a bouquetwith grandmother’s […]
Why Poetry is Well Suited for Space Work
Why did I think she had eyes thecolor of feces and sweat dipping tainted hairs white as burning phosphorous? What is wrongwith me? Why could I not justsee brown and white? It’s as if my mind has to reenter the atmosphere before it can join otherhumans again. Not unlike astronauts,poets speak words with Neoprene-coated nylon.Their syllables irrigating the sandy […]
I Need My Used Book Store
Three Lives, in New York. From Intelligencer I need my used bookstore. The sensuous aromas of waxy skin jackets andmahogany shelves, paperskeletons in an excavatedashram of introspection.I need what it stashes awaybehind a Tom Clancy noveland an old National Geographic.Eureka! That one book, at sometime misplaced in my mind,appearing as a lost symbol ofwilderness, casting a garland-clothed silhouette, as flannel-shirted, torn-jeaned, leather- sandalled […]