Artwork by catzz Becoming many-celled,bright red to orange,existing by thoughts alone,barely living from thesun, mountainous, even coniferous,pink-tinged, with unlaced shoes, uncombed hair, and handmade signs, broke loose for the first time, making deathhowl, between a porno shop and a truck stopdiner, they said Buffalo was 20 minutesaway and then it happened. Too young to age,too old to […]
Hercules Without Muscles
I am Hercules without muscles.Zeus without thunder. Hadeswithout an underworld. Drifting, like a show out of Nashvillewithout a guitar. Pure country and dirty to the core. I am a Pollockwithout dripping a single droplet of paint. Brooklyn without a bridge. People cross over me without anywhere to go and no reason to go there. I am a tape cassette. The magic is […]
Leaf Pile
Five months after you came into the world, you discovered the fawnbrown mystery of brittle leaves in December. Back when the winterswere late upon the earth. With your sister, you played in the pileof leaves like a small doll sinking intothe earth itself. Into a wormhole of foliage,and a cataclysm of autumn. Laughing atnothing but the act […]
The Delta
I don’t know why I became an atheist, Yet some days I can tastethe divine. It sits still in mymouth, as a pair of crouchingeyelids in the tall, midday grass. 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, […]
The Blankness of Being
(Inspired by the Zen masters of China) Consciousnessis too free Like the stars in outer space and the severed head of Kalisweeping away dust forever making death howlknowing that we do not want to be in church Like being buried alive in the same place where we beganas if we had never existed at all. George Cassidy […]
I’m a Surrealist
I’m a surrealist. So what. Surreal is dependent onthe real. To know that itmakes sense, in order toshow that it doesn’t. Doesthat make sense? Do youmake sense? Does this makesense? Why do you want tomake sense? David Byrne saidstop making sense. But that means it made sense to beginwith. Did it? Who are you to say?What sense […]
Prajnaparamita in Tibetan Buddhist Art
Yellow Prajnaparamita with four hands Prajnaparamita (Tib. sherab kyi pharol tu chinpa), the Mahayana goddess of wisdom, appears in the Perfection of Wisdom sutras as a fundamental deity in Tibetan Buddhism. In Tibet, she is known as Sherchinma or Yum Chenmo, the “Great Mother.”
Sarnath
Disembodied from thebleeding virus of breakingnews, you taught. In the Deer Park at Sarnath,to see clearly in muddy watersand to partner with illness, no longer treated like a rumorthat may or may not be true.
Does ET Have a Soul?
What would happen to ourunderstanding of humannessif we knew that we are not alone? And does ET have a soul? Parallel worlds and alternate realities.An abundance of creatures on earth; there could also be other beings,even intelligent ones, that were createdby God. Brothers and sisters both. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been […]
How a Philosopher Looks at a Glass of Water
Some people are halfglass full types.Others see the glass as half empty. I’m the kind of person who wants toknow why there is water in the glass,and why there are glasses that can holdwater. Why is there even water at all? George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included […]