There are many kinds of deserts,but they all reject the notion that lifeshould flourish. That’s gravity. A grim background disturbing the atmosphere. But it can’t make you fall in love, or at least that’swhat Einstein said. With an exquisite fussiness, it intones mystical equations and leaks blood in -alabaster basins. Gravity is a creature of two […]
nature
Something Rather Than Nothing
Before slavery,oceans swept awayshadowsof sand pyramids. Before peace,there was just volcanicash on the seabeds- the color of Confederategray, like the eyes of a lost husky. Before the masters of war,there were border walls madeof barren clouds, ribbed and lifeless- above a million stillborn valleys. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work […]
Tea by the Batten Kill
Rinsing away theworld, from a widow’speak above the Batten Kill, with a cup of rose tips, everything burned leavesthe fragrance of her dried lips,like old questions interrupted. 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, […]
Close to Timberline
Ascorbic acid tabletswon’t quench my thirst. I want the secret sourcesof the Hudson, log bridges,and vanished paths. Hydrating oil-in-lipstickwon’t cover my hunger. I want countless warm pondswrapped in cold weather. A thin mist. The deep woods. I want freedom. No paper flowers.No fairy tale weddings.No cloned puppies. Just early snow ontumbled rocks, and the fountainheadof majestic streams. […]
Last Virgin Pine
Solitary and heavyunder the unseated saddleof an infinite sky, Immortality is a ruthless harvester of data: an endless string of half breaths from the last remaining virgin pine. Covered in a bright burst of December snowfall, the sunstruck diamonds smile back. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as […]
The Way of Zen
The Way of Zen is to climb the flattest place on earth. To become a geologic paradox. To crack into the earth, like a creative carving of erosion. The way of Zen is when fire meets ice, like a thundering waterfall made quiet by the sacred nature of rocks. This poem was also published in The […]
Getting the most out of summer
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day Nothing gold can stay. – Robert Frost Once you realise this floating life as the perfect mirage of change, […]
Songs of the Ocean’s Tides
Pixie Take a walk on the beach, holding a friend’s hand, and relax. Feel the sand squeezed between your toes and listen to the gently lapping waves. Peaceful, isn’t it? Well, maybe not. Choose a different beach, and the surface might be sharp edges of volcanic rock, a foam frozen in time and cut by […]
Food, Change, and Survival: What the Cockroach Teaches Us
Pixie In 1915, Franz Kafka wrote The Metamorphosis, a novel about a man who woke up one morning transformed into a verminous creature, probably a cockroach. His family is disgusted and repelled by his new form and the rest of the novel is about his struggle to adapt to the change. Why do cockroaches evoke […]
Five Worms – A Preamble
Steve Braff I saved five worms today as they lay plump and limp upon the wet pavement – blind altar of ignominious death by the coming heat or passing car. I saved five worms today as I plucked their slippery bodies stretched supplicant, almost inert from the indifferent asphalt and tossed each to shelter in […]