Dogs piss on lilacs and raisinsdie the death of grapes pickedEverything changes and thoughtsare just sounds, all moving like strings pickedWithout wanting to look stupidwe are just kids in the kickball line wanting to be pickedCowards and cowboys and car thieves and cool kidsI become Buddha. I taste radicchio. I am not alone. Pickedin the […]
impermanence
Buddha Taught
Everything is in flux:our body heat, the flowof blood circulating throughthe arteries, even the thoughts in our heads, and the soundsbouncing off objects all around-the fluctuating voice cordsand the atmospheric pressure, too.Everything changing. The musclescontracting, skin cells dying, nailsgrowing, hair follicles too. Creaturescoming and going, the air itself, andthe self itself, all moving. Possessionsdissolving:CarsMoneyClothingBooksComputersHometownsConversationsDrugsAffairsSatisfaction fleeting. George Cassidy […]
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 […]
The History of the Earth
The history of the earth is aconstrained blessing. With my warm human hands I receive it, knowing that it was the sun that Joshua commanded to be still. It was not the earth. The earthcannot remain still. As we move, with our families, in and out of dying,a flowing, syncytium over the earth. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from […]
Unconscious of the Changes
Alone and ignored,rolled up like a napkinin a French bistro, zonedout to the blithe, unconditionedair, measuring the breathsof a caving fly, dripping rain, in a word. For in the tent the world losessome of its power. Rising through a web. Is it a Black Widow’s?Beauty above. Beauty below. With everythingout of my breath, holding onto what we have. […]
Last Virgin Pine
Solitary and heavyunder the unseated saddleof an infinite sky, Immortality is a ruthless harvester of data: an endless string of half breaths from the last remaining virgin pine. Covered in a bright burst of December snowfall, the sunstruck diamonds smile back. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as […]
Transitions
“All compounded things are impermanent,” we are taught by the Buddha. Yet how often do we cling to this or that manifestation of reality, or a particular manifestation of politics, or our religion, or the dispositions of our loved ones or ourselves? Spring has arrived fully in my city of Seattle. With it comes a […]
The Language of Flowers: Flower Artist Masao Mizukami
Grace Ko “To see a World in a Grain of Sand; and a Heaven in a Wild Flower; hold Infinity in the palm of your hand; and Eternity in an hour,” said English poet William Blake. Japanese flower arranging emphasizes interaction with the natural world to reach enlightenment. Japanese flower artist Masao Mizukami finds this […]
Food, Change, and Survival: What the Cockroach Teaches Us
Pixie In 1915, Franz Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, a novel about a man who woke up one morning transformed into a verminous creature, probably a cockroach. His family is disgusted and repelled by his new form and the rest of the novel is about his struggle to adapt to the change. Why do cockroaches evoke […]
On Impermanence: Built to Last?
Pixie We tend to think of buildings as permanent. There is even an English phrase, “As safe as houses,” which is presupposed on their ability to withstand damage and protect their contents. But is this justified? The building next to the one I’m sitting in has just been demolished, and across the road there is […]