Welded inside another mindher words openedfor the first time the way of Zen climbing the necklike a waterfall ofdolomite and gypsummy eyes closedgravity reversedscents of being liftedairborne and fragrant 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 […]
love
How To Fall Out of Love
If we are lucky, it is like an ant on thesidewalks of Times Square. This memory. This oval shaped, solid, durable, now fixed, singular, squishy, ripping sounding, earthy tasting, leathery,months-long, crimson-colored, knuckle sized thing. 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 […]
How to Treat Water
Store in a copper basin with tulips or rose petals, under a salt lamp. Pray over and be kind to it. Play Mozart andChopin for it.Let it know youas a friend, and always, alwayssay thank 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 […]
Unsolicited Advice to the Class of 2020
Grip life the way a father holds his son’srib bone after a car bomb in a Baghdad market. Treat it with speechlessrespect. Awake each morning in its belly, licking the mucous from the rubberyintestine of your own ignorance. Chase life. As children run after dragonflies.Unlock the jar and hold it like a prisoner of evolution. […]
Lovers of Truth
Love is the absolute The unsurpassable The final dissolution Without destination May I be the lover The honey in all your senses The softness of the goddess May your heart open broadly Without anything to hold back Just pure deliverance May we see our eyes mirroringPure songs humming And the fragrance of fire Burning Clouding the […]
What I Have Faith In
The bending of starlightand my next breath, givenunto me as the heart is givenunto the chest. Or the summer moon is given unto the Comanchewarrior. And I have faith in you kissing me, under violets and lady’sslipper, in the wild gardens of Acadia, where dancing butterflies dare to land. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, […]
A Minor Prayer for Galactic Peace
May all beings everywhere, in this galaxy and beyond,find peace within ourselves, with others, and with Mother Earth.May we rediscover health, joy, naturalness, and freedom.May those in dark places know the emptiness of suffering.May the demonic forces behind our enemies be extinguished byAvalokiteshvara’s inexhaustible wisdom. May Mañjuśrī’s flaming swordcut out the infection in our hearts […]
Putting My Son to Bed
There are moments so sacred that I can only share them in a poem. When I am reading tomy son in his rocking chair. Curious George and Sesame Street. Or when he begins to suck his wrist, that thing which sootheshim best. That’s when I know heis ready. Opening his arms into mine. I cradle him. He is getting too big to […]
Maya: Creative Force, Illusion, and Motherly Love
Reflections. Courtesy of author. The Sanskrit term maya is usually translated as “illusion.” The etymology of the word is considered to come from the root ma, “to measure,” “to give shape,” and “to form.” In some early Sanskrit texts, maya has the meaning of “creative force” and it is related to the three innate qualities […]
Three Encounters wi ra Bodhisattva ay Compassion in Maryhill, Glasgow, Scotland
by dubh Endins. Beginnins. Nothin iver beginnin or endin. Continuity contains entropy, stasis contains movement. Nae metter how many times ra knife chops, severs, slices, divides, nothin separates. * A get in ra lift oan ra 10th floor. Ra man awready in ther came fae higher up. E could be 35, or 60; ra povurty, diet, […]