had a way of telling us we could never have it better in this light, in your liver, the future became unusually gentle a machine deitya bronze mirrora moment of medicine and voices and teachings and sentience upon the trillions of piles of earth. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat […]
existentialism
The Tao is broken, too
Murky and flimsy. Weakand empty. Dark. Dangling. Depressed. Deep hunger pangs. Dying on the vine. Ignoble onpurpose. Groundless and buriedlike emeralds or silent and boundless as jackrabbits in the grateful dead of a Western New York snowstorm in March. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria Poetry […]
Listen to the Wild
be wounded with her be empty and homelesswith herbe a light among her trees the turquoise darknessat 3:20 amencounter her be exquisite with herponder her like the longpour of a Guinness at an Irish pub on a slow nighttake a measure of hercrystal beauty her stained-glass beauty awake in her stomachheal with herbend with her have faith in her next breath dare to land with […]
Mindfulness Is Not
1. A religion 2. An answer 3. A way to feel successful 4. A way to improve yourself 5. A cult 6. A scientific explanation 7. How the brain should work 8. A way of life for the enlightened 9. Ancient 10. New 11. Good for you Mindfulness is a deliberate choice, each moment, to observe […]
Heaven and Earth
I am left timeless. My skin is timeless. Like the rusty mercury gauge in an old Chevy. I am gazing upon Christ. I am aggressive.My density is aggressive. I am an out of body experience. My blood pressure drops to zero. I am a cardiac arrest. The feeling of absolute resolution. I am the hangings, shootings, and burnings. I am a pathof […]
Another Letter to the Editor
I think I know whyI like this piece. It’s what I strive forin everything I do. It disrupts everyone. From Generation Z to the Greatest Generation, this one has something to unnerve and destabilizeeveryone’s moral justice.No quarter. Almost no socialor political allegiance. Just one man’s interpretation based on experience. There is a certain purity in that which makes me feel safe. Who knows what the ramificationswill […]
Whispering
Under a dying Sycamorea soft handsimply rises on my chestbringing something closeto comfortso lonely and satisfied. 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 […]
Driving Through Seattle
Drizzled.Plundered.Poured.Like sunlight.Like religion.Like sleet againsta car window.I am a gorgeouscatastrophe 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 […]
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. […]
Leaf Pile
Five months after you came into the world, you discovered the fawnbrown mystery of brittle leaves in December. Back when the winterswere late upon the earth. With your sister, you played in the pileof leaves like a small doll sinking intothe earth itself. Into a wormhole of foliage,and a cataclysm of autumn. Laughing atnothing but the act of […]