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 […]
At the Core
My heart is a self-published book, likea snake shedding its skin, I have an infinite supply of words and pages toturn over. Yet my whole past andmy entire future has been recordedon a single page. 38 years of life. One exposed, solitary page. Stored in metallic ink,each morning reachingamelioration. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. […]
My Mood Feels
like the third glassof a New Belgium juicyhaze IPA. Ancient wisdomon a napkin. Lighting bowlsand random deposit slips onthe top of a Panasonic stereo,one that only plays FM radio and cassette tapes. Like beingtogether with my family, but not requesting the reception that has to follow, orlike a sunflower picked off atthe root, thrown into a bouquetwith grandmother’s […]
Why Poetry is Well Suited for Space Work
Why did I think she had eyes thecolor of feces and sweat dipping tainted hairs white as burning phosphorous? What is wrongwith me? Why could I not justsee brown and white? It’s as if my mind has to reenter the atmosphere before it can join otherhumans again. Not unlike astronauts, poets speak words with Neoprene-coated nylon.Their syllables irrigating […]
I Need My Used Book Store
Three Lives, in New York. From Intelligencer I need my used bookstore. The sensuous aromas of waxy skin jackets andmahogany shelves, paperskeletons in an excavatedashram of introspection.I need what it stashes awaybehind a Tom Clancy noveland an old National Geographic.Eureka! That one book, at sometime misplaced in my mind,appearing as a lost symbol ofwilderness, casting a garland-clothed silhouette, as flannel-shirted, torn-jeaned, leather- sandalled […]
Guru
I make offerings with my body, speech and mindMay we understand the principle of the LotusThe inherent purity of the mindThe jewel that is beyond contaminationIn this difficult times of poverty, sickness, ignorance, violence and greed Please, Lotus Born, guide usOffer the shelter of your wisdom mindBring our experience to Dharma,Magnetizing our willEnhance our qualities […]
Your Homegrown Smile
is delicious. It’sbright and round like cherrytomatoes pulledfrom a soil bed. Gripped by twohands, with white chalklined canals running across thepalms, the flowering green, sea monstershaped stems sproutaround fingernails, andhair on the wrists ofa sunburned forearm. When I think about yoursmile, I think about home.The rain on my family farm,all season long it rains. I think about the […]
The Five Hindrances
As human beings, we sometimes falter when we walk the Buddhist path. We have the best of intentions; hoping against hope to end suffering for ourselves and other sentient beings. But inevitably, obstacles arise that make it difficult for us to walk the path. This is especially true when it comes to the practice of Right Effort. […]
Two Monks Arguing About Movement
It’s not the leaves that move. Nor is it the Banyan tree. The mind moves both of them,as if they were constructed of thoughts from the river’s basement, Rising from the cracks,where my grandfather usedto lay his line, like the idea of wind and Banyan trees- not unlike the ideaof crawfish and trout, everything struckwith the face of awe, a holy agreement.that we can all be residents of a sunlit world.
Parnashavari: Goddess of Natural Healing
Parnashavari. From quora.com ཨོཾ་པི་ཤ་ཙི་པརྞ་ཤ་ཝ་རི་སརྦ་ཛྭ་ར་པྲ་ཤཱ་མ་ན་ཡེ་སྭཱ་ཧཱ། OM PISHATSI PARNA SHAVARI SARVA ZVARA PRASHA MANI SVAHA Parnashavari (Tib. Loma Gyonma) is a healing goddess who removes contagious and epidemic diseases. Her name means “dressed in leaves” and she embodies our connection with nature and natural methods of healing. She is an example of an Indian folk deity absorbed […]