Poetry does not bring me peace. Or if it does,
it is the peace of a baby sleeping, only to be woken by a nightmare.
Poetry does not bring me relaxation. Or if it does,
it is the relaxation of a perch eating a frog underneath a rolling country brook.
Poetry does not bring me reconciliation. Or if it does,
it is the tense and non-lasting settlement between two warring nations.
Poetry does not bring me freedom from misery. Or if it does,
it is the liberty that comes when a monk realizes that freedom is their last desire to overcome.
Poetry does not bring peace. Poetry is a perception that all is happening as it should.
Not the way I want it to be but the way it must be.
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.
