Like you, I amjust seekingan experienceof being alive. Stirred, smoothed,and thickened, freshas a rosemary sprig, my primitive religion feels strained througha sieve on topof a cooled caramel base. 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 […]
Sirius or Capella
Fresh mint is nothingbut clusters of stars,and a screwed top jarmeasures the limit ofman’s contemplation. Just slice the goat’scheese and a singlegalaxy has divided. Decorate the regionof the sky with berries,and blend all the confusion which still exists. Gently fold into thesweetcorn theemissions generated,the mango mixtureof brilliant vindication. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from […]
Genesis of Clouds
Died broke and forgotten,each dream is a phrase in slow motion,a long sampling of the moon awakened. Down beneath the turmoil of sixty thousandmillion years of not fitting in, we are driveninto the condition of atoms- brittle as flat leaf parsley crushed like stoned salt. Deep in a dream, the mind is the genesis of clouds, rising […]
The Vineyard
Cooked gently by theluminescence and blendedin the blackberry liqueur ofelder flowers and arrowroot,the sun is sometimes a flashat the bottom of four stemmedglasses. Skinned side down thesweet songs of our crazy sorrows.Deep time, a sweet orange blossomwater, a fluid that cannot be named. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]
That it May Start in Balance
In order that it may start inbalance, we can see onlya small part of the total universe-that mystery greater than death;and for the sake of balance, we cansee how love disintegrates and by whatmeans and at what time it was created.Crossing the boundaries of physics,reaching the final barrier of knowing. George Cassidy Payne is a […]
Postcard from Raymond: Merton’s Theology of the Problematic
My colleague Justin Whitaker has just published news about the 50th anniversary of the Catholic monk and writer Thomas Merton. It is no surprise that Buddhists have joined Christians in commemorating his life. I admired Merton to the point of making his work one half of my BA thesis, which was a Buddhist-Christian dialogue between […]
2019: A Year for Pastoral Caregiving to the World
Today we published a Buddhistdoor View advocating a “pastoral” perspective on the world. In the editorial we mean “pastoral” in its broadest, oldest possible sense: the act of listening and bearing witness, beyond even its common religious connotations, modern psychotherapeutic applications, or activist implications. This is the space of the shepherd: ever guiding yet ever open. […]
Thinking of that other-other Suzuki: Beatrice Lane
Beatrice Lane Kamakura, 1915. Today I read a student essay which cited B.L. Suzuki. I was intrigued. B.L.? In college I learned about two giants of 20th century Buddhism: Shunryu Suzuki and D.T. Suzuki. I remember many times mixing them up or naively conflating them into a single person. I later did the same with […]
There is a Hush
There is a hushfrom the beginningof time, where youcan hear yourselfblink. It’s calledimmortality. The rumbling timbers. Those extinct tracks. There is a hush, it is the sound of the desert parsleywithering and thewhimpers of hawksand eagles careeningtowards the earthrise. There is a hush, sunk into the chasms,bringing a curse thatcan never be lifted. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from […]
The Way Galileo Saw It
When I look up I see the quiet survivalof the solar system. I see the outbursts ofconstellations andthe disturbing meaningof the Milky Way. When I look up I see the penetration of thecorona, a universe of stars,the way Galileo saw it, all ionized and catastrophic. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]