Mindfulness is noticing
stillness, how the ink
on my paper has more than
one color of black and feels
fluid as silk. It’s noticing the
stillness of a solitary pine needle
pulsing in the sighing wind. And
the acrobatic foraging of a squirrel
jumping from limb to limb with
unhesitating spontaneity.
It’s the neighbor’s Calico slouching,
preying, lifting each paw as a ninja
would around a corner, while above
the houses, X-rays of naked oak
branches-like billions of neurons-
scatter across a misty film of clouds.
Mindfulness is noticing stillness, all
the things I need to do now.
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. John Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South China Morning Post, The Buffalo News, and more.
See all his poems on Tea House here.
