A poem by artist Oleg Yuzefpolsky
natural world
How to Learn from Nature
Living among snakes in the wilderness taught me about the value of mindfulness and how to apply it to different situations in life. Part of living in the wild requires an understanding of how to co-exist peacefully with other beings like snakes. One of the first things that I learned about snakes was their tendencies […]
Why is Nature Peaceful?
On a bright, moon-lit night, while walking back to my kuti in a forest in Thailand, I spotted a huge scorpion that had come out of hiding from under a rock. Out of curiosity, I pointed my flashlight directly at it for a moment, then continued to walk the path back to my resting place […]
Why Does the Mind Run Wild?
From being out in the wilderness, I’ve awakened to the reality of how fragile life is in all its form. During the day, I’ve seen bears cause deer and squirrels to flee into hiding. At night, I’ve heard the cries of hungry coyotes and wolves. As one of my teachers once said, the images used […]
Atammayata
Birth and death, love and hate, the burnt scent of cloves on fingers and campfire on jeans, nothing is attached for long. In the butter soft leather light of purple fog, a royal procession of swans announce themselves.Not made of that, the lake is restless for now George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, […]
Breckenridge
Unimpressed with me or my camera, the raven, clove black with a touch of tar, draws easily from the pine needle-covered stream. So easily, the way honeysuckle curls over the broken necks of cedar, or how, in slumbering isolation, a reddish shade of Colorado awakens as a poet ready to desert his own mind. 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 […]
Nothing we see is color
Cezanne said that but no one believed himAll we really seeis light valiantly massacred the mineral-laden earth with its zillions of herbal veins and carnivorous flowers mere pinpoints of light reverberations of molecular light adorned with ornaments of human bones 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 […]
Leaving the Tunnel
Nothing we see is color Cezanne said that but no one believed him All we really see is light The mineral-laden earth with its zillions of herbal veins and carnivorous flowers mere pinpoints of light reverberations of molecular light adorned with ornaments of human bones George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria […]
Distillation: 2
Having grown bored with wisdom, resting by an old fence of fist sized rocks, chalk whiteas baby powder, the young man leans back and shuts his eyes, recognizing the subtle earthiness of not knowinghow a few drops of water spins sugar nests from grain. 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. […]