In the aftermath of the recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas on 3 August and in Dayton, Ohio on the 4th, both President Trump and Texas Governor Abbott have named mental ill-health as one of the main culprits for these horrific actions. This has sparked a strong reaction from mental health advocates and organizations. […]
Puerta Del Diablo
I once heard a cop from Flint say it’s been a long time since a dead body botheredher. It bothers me that I know what she means. It’s not her fault. Nor is it mine. When it’s allsaid and done, we only know what we possess,and we only possess what we can hold onto. The dead are […]
400 Million Miles From the Sun
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, […]
Is Buddhism the Problem?
I have recently been recommending Sam Harris’ meditation app. Waking Up to some of my atheist friends who would not go near anything that smacked of religion. I like this app more than some other secular meditation apps I have come across, mainly because it doesn’t simply aim to help people to become less stressed. […]
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 […]
A Minor Prayer for Galactic Peace
May all beings everywhere, in this galaxy and beyond,find peace within ourselves, with others, and with Mother Earth.May we rediscover health, joy, naturalness, and freedom.May those in dark places know the emptiness of suffering.May the demonic forces behind our enemies be extinguished byAvalokiteshvara’s inexhaustible wisdom. May Mañjuśrī’s flaming swordcut out the infection in our hearts […]
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: CarsMoneyClothingBooksComputersHometownsConversationsDrugsAffairs […]
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 […]
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 like a probe crashinginto the orbit of Mercury. I am still getting closer to the distanceof a different destiny, at least until the […]
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 […]