Mindfulness is noticingstillness, 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. Andthe acrobatic foraging of a squirrel jumping from limb to limb withunhesitating spontaneity. It’s the neighbor’s Calico slouching,preying, lifting each paw as a […]
life
Chi
It felt like cupping a shapelessbubble, delicate as a stolen Robin’s egg,yet weightless and resting in nothingness. I should have known it was within me.
Bow & Be
ThatToo Timeless&Newborn CaperingThrough What loveCan leave on those Traces of Earth EnduringThe rivers and All that May be true Maybe.My whole past, too. My heart.The lost part Of the brain.Cutting like a Samurai’s sword Touching the grassOr taking off a tight shoe Death the wayRam Dass felt it.
Driving Through Seattle
Drizzled.Plundered.Poured.Like sunlight.Like religion.Like sleet againsta car window.I am a gorgeouscatastrophe
Littered With Salvation
A flask-shaped bald head olive-black eyes. Short chestnutbrown eyebrows. Oshkosh B’goshoveralls and an ultraviolet purplesleeved shirt. Like small dollspatched with the materials of a day’s harvestsinking into the earthinto a wormhole of foliage, laughing at nothingbut the act of knowing that sometimes it’s commonand good to laugh at nothing. We played unconcealed. Outside. Submerged in winding branches and […]
Zen and the Art of Dying
I remember when the thought of dying became real to me. I was 24 years old, serving a tour of duty in Iraq with the U.S. Marines. It was my squad’s turn to act as the quick reaction force (QRF) for our base. QRF is like the 911 of a forward-deployed unit. They’re on standby 24/7, […]
Suffering the Process of Decision-Making
Several years ago, I went through a period when I struggled with unemployment—no matter how many job applications I submitted, nothing seemed to come of my efforts. That is, until one day (as it often happens) I got two job offers at the same time. The offers were both appealing to the same extent, with […]
Does ET Have a Soul?
What would happen to ourunderstanding of humannessif we knew that we are not alone? And does ET have a soul? Parallel worlds and alternate realities.An abundance of creatures on earth; there could also be other beings,even intelligent ones, that were createdby God. Brothers and sisters both. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been […]
Primitive Religion
Like you, I amjust seekingan experienceof being alive. Stirred, smoothed,and thickened, freshas a rosemary sprig, my primitive religion feels strained througha sieve on topof a cooled caramel base. 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 […]
MPR Raccoon and the Bodhisattva Way
On June 18th a raccoon in Minnesota climbed up the side of a building and captured a nation’s heart. Observers believe that she originally went up there to steal eggs from bird nests, but got stuck in the process. Well-meaning maintenance workers tried to help her by building a make-shift ladder for her to climb […]