Consuming the soft crystalthe alien looked like a probe sent into the orbit of my brain.I gazed wondrously intoits big, Texas-sized eyes. The room became calmlike twilight. The oak trees,the ones outside, felt destroyed,as if they were knocked over,and placed on an 18 wheelerheading out of the great forests. As the scent of sandalwood rose up. The creature placed […]
nature
A Yellow Cardinal
Genetics could be the sole factor the same way roots of hemlocksthirst for affection like toddlers, some say it is an obscure type ofhermaphroditism, or some other theoryperhaps the reason pumice smellsthe way it does, or the words surface to life from the lips of the newly awakenedshining like a natural sermon, burning phosphorous and strikingthe earth, beneath the polar auroras yes, a yellow cardinal isno rarer than the redno less […]
Thanksgiving (Inspired by Francis of Assisi)
Brother Wind, you are so usefuland humble. Without asking foranything, you refresh our lungs.Thank youBrother Fire, you do not charge foryour warmth or shut off our lights whenwe are not able to pay the bill.Thank youSister Water, you quench our thirst andhonor our bodies with your life force.Thank youMother for not checkingour passports.
Even a Full Moon Needs Sunlight
Understand that even a solar burpis bigger than Planet Earth.And the corona shone. In 250 million yearsit will come around again, even though it is right here, all of the time. The vital Sun. Trapped in a beltor aurorae. Solar winds. Nothinglives without it.Even a full moon needs sunlight. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His […]
400 Million Miles From the Sun
Beauty is located insidea gravitational tango,one where we become a celibate partner with Jupiter;where we are grateful just to drink from muddy waters,clean as it was first drunk by thecephalopods 400 millionmiles from the Sun. 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 […]
Where Deer Sleep
My three-year-old sonasked me where deer sleep.So I took him there. Steppinginto a space that is not meantfor fathers and sons, we founda ritual that has nothing to dowith us. An original grace. A serenitythat evokes the burden of redemption.That place where deer sleep, under aplumbeous sky, the pods of grass benttoward the center of […]
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 […]
Towards a Biology of God
Such a familiar sound.Black bear digging for pine cones.The folding of the earth’s crust, no onewas there to show them how to tie a knot orsew a pelt. Under extreme pressure, the edgesof eons rubbed against each other, the touch ofan earthquake on the elbow and a volcano inbetween the toes. Deep trenches keeping us fromseeing each other. […]
The Deep Void
Master Jingzong; English translation by Fole, edited by Fojin When I was young, I liked staring at a patch of blue sky surrounded by fluffy white clouds. It looked so deep and boundless to me. I was fascinated and could look at it all day. This is my intuitive feeling, as a man on earth, […]
Spiritual Melodies: Tully MacKay-Tisbert
The landscape of America is dotted with Christian influences, from the lamentations of oppression and hope of liberation that fused with African influences to form the melancholy blues, to the Christian rock that arose in the 1960s to become a formidable force of conversion in mega-churches. It is extraordinary that the culture of a republic […]