For two years, I lived on the edge of woods, on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee, between a sewage plant, an American Indian burial ground, and the state mental hospital. Outside my house I saw a butterfly, the most radiant being I had ever seen — blue and black and ivory, incandescent. A friend later […]
human condition
Like a Bottle of 10 Year McKenna
Color in whiskymeans nothingIt has no meaningother than pleasure Taste is everything 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 […]
Changing the Rules
When I am not trying rules change.I am no longer afraid of who I am. Valueless like the tree falling with no one there to hear it crash.I love you. 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 […]
Cause and Effect
Scottish physicists declarethat the universe may stop expandingand implode instead English physicists declarethat neutrinos suggestthat effect could precede cause An American woman danceswith joy in a kitchen,laughing and singing, while a Scottish man melts butterin a skillet, breaks eggs,drops them in the butter, adds pepper and salt,flips the eggs with a spatula,adds more salt, more […]
The Sacred
is when you knowthat shoveling the drivewayis a Catholic massand eating at Red Lobster is the same as receiving communion, that’s prayerand meditationa Yoga when taking a shower is baptism and going to the moviesis Mecca when reading the Torah is reading the New York Timesand going for a walk in the woods and having sex is celibacysmoking joints and tobacco and incenseand salmon on the grill in the backyard on Columbus Day or Veterans Daykilling deer for food and sport alike […]
Seven Haiku
winter morning —daylight arriveswithout a story snow plungesfrom tower block ledgeslike falling bodies duckling left behindpaddles to catch upwith mother and siblings children playing in ruins of millme 40 summers agowalking by today young woman pushing prambruise beneath her eyemorning rain zazen together, one breath4000 miles butno distance between us winter street —dog turd on […]
Journals
Journal #3Survival is nature’s morality. Life on its own is valueless. We give it value.We make it worthsomething,and say it’s so. Like your Aunt’sfavorite pearls or your Uncle’sgolden watch. We are the treefalling with no onethere to hear it crash. 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 […]
No Order of Things
my feet knit the socksthat knit her knitting-needlesthat knit herand send her to the riverwhere she finds the rockthat sets her on a pathto where i’m waiting for herthough neither of us knows it Support Our Dharma Work
NO
Frost on the ground,Condensation on the window.Maybe something brittlebroke along the way; I’ve learned there’s no such thingAs a perfect triangleAnd now there doesn’t seemThat much to say. Between seasons,Colours indistinct,Painted life in shadesNot quite of grey, No stone to be castBetween guilt and innocence,And now there doesn’t seemThat much to say. Water on the […]
To Leave Something Behind
is our first religion our most primeval ritual to be remembered by those who have beennearly forgotten is the holiest experience 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 […]