Signless and aimless,
I have come to accept
that I am
who I am
looking for. I am already what I have
searched for. As the master taught:
Barn’s burned down-
now I can see the moon.
What do I see when the moon
looks at me? The memory of my muscles
aching for you to see me.
Where have my shadows gone
now that I am part of you?
Where have all my notions gone now
that I am compounded? Now that I am
impermanently yours, striving on with diligence,
the final words of my master remind me.
I am the end of my own suffering.
I am the center of my own craving. I am the core
of my own issues. I cannot go past the energy of me.
I am the doorway to my own emptiness.
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 Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South China Morning Post, The Buffalo News, and more.
See all his poems on Tea House here.
