I know as a ghost knows a lovely, fragile, shale hunger returning broken from my hands hung between the womb andwilderness as it is born, a great disk-shapedaccident of the cosmos. See all his poems on Tea House here.
Neither Slave Nor Master
I am not in charge,nor am I a slave held bythe same infinity where these scales do not matter;where the art of poetry aloneis raised like a prayer flag. 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. […]
Does God Exist? (for J. Krishnamurti)
If God created you,you must be extraordinary. If God made you, you mustbe beautiful, full of delight. Look at yourself? Are you thosethings? Either we have created God orGod has created us. In India I have been toldthat there are over 3,000gods. The irony of it! Thought worshiping thought.Oneself worshipped and called God. Notice it, […]
Lavinia
Ideas are fleeting likeair molecules, or flicksof a woman’s eyelashesafter the first appliance of eyeshadow. Or maybe they are morelike basket weaved hats that no one wears anymore,not unless they want to beseen or reenacting, as if there is a difference.
To Die Like Marat
The death of Marat wasbad, but at least he lookedgood. I don’t want to go out a slob,nothing against slobs. I want to die handsome, likeMarat, or at least the way Jacques-Louis David saw him with a letter in his hand and the sunlight casting a golden shadow on his shoulders, forehead, and left forearm.Stabbed […]
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 stench of 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 […]
The Firebrands
What is the real reason Jupiterdid not let humans have fire? When the brutal winters camehe saw that they were unhappy. Was it to make them suffer, out of joyor boredom, in the rotting, barkless cold?Was it to merely expose their interiorsas hollow space for veiled, powdery, pinkish-salmon, gill-like phobias? Was it just a dark game between them – […]
Looking for a Place to Go
The last time I checked the Buddha never went toa Zen center to meditate. Jesus never talked to his fatherin a church or ate the bread ofhis own limbs at the altar. Moses never needed permissionfrom a rabbi to climb mountains,talk to burning bushes, or read tablets to the masses down below, those whoare always looking […]
The Art of Being
We do not paint. We are the pigments,resins, solvents and additives the soft animal bristle andhand-assembled metal bands. We do not write. We are the molecules linked together in crystalline structures, soaked into paper, allowingour thoughts to bleed at the edges. We do not make music. We are strings vibrating,communicating rhythmic visions hanging in air, that feeling of wanting […]
Suffering the Process of Decision-Making
Several years ago, I went through a period when I struggled with unemployment—no matter how many job applications I submitted, nothing seemed to come of my efforts. That is, until one day (as it often happens) I got two job offers at the same time. The offers were both appealing to the same extent, with […]