Zen prose and poetry from daishin
life
Watch, listen, and remember. He is all around us
No one can predict the time of one’s passing. More accurately, no one can predict when one dissolves into the bloom of a flower, or returns to the sky as a cloud that is beyond creation and destruction. It was therefore natural that the Hong Kong Buddhist community’s commemoration for Thich Nhat Hanh on the […]
Getting a Kick Out of Life
I’ve never been fond of horses. They’re beautiful animals, but riding on them is an uncomfortable experience. They can also be dangerous. My karate teacher was knocked unconscious when he was violently kicked by his horse. When he eventually regained consciousness, that experience led him to reflect on the precarious nature of life. It’s what […]
Born Again
Work out everyday. No excuses. Do it. Morning or evening. Doesn’t matter. Just do it. Stop making excuses. Write. At least an hour a day. Just do it. Stop being sorry for yourself. Just write. Meditate. Every day. Find the time. Breathing or whatever. Just meditate. Stop telling yourself you don’t have time. That’s a lie. You […]
A Definition of Bliss (for Joseph Campbell)
In this land of a quick and unexpected death, where the air is almost wet enough to drink,I am merely seeking an experience of being alive, my best and only religion,the music of tiny, bare footsteps splashing. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat […]
Mindful of Time
Some time ago—I don’t remember how long because I didn’t think to keep track—a couple of mourning doves came to inspect a flowerpot that hangs from the ceiling of my porch. They went back and forth, inspecting the flowerpot, for a day or two, and then they left. A few weeks later they were back […]
Out of Reach
In the stewed rhubarb flesh of the bay’s earliest fog, the water birds are undetermined. Birth and death. Nothing is attached for long. 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 […]