1. Light a bonfireQuickly, write down all my sinsToss them in the flames 2. Do not get too closeFire burns through flesh and boneBut stay close enough 3. Winter is so coldThe snow gets deeper each dayA fire would be nice Support Our Dharma Work
nature
Let It Rain
I heard the crack of thunder as it whipped across the sky and prepared myself for the downpour to come. I was sitting cross-legged in a tiny wooden kuti that was nestled among the tall trees and rugged rocks on land that was part of a remote forest monastery in Northern Thailand. As I sat […]
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, […]
River Teach Me
Inspired by a sacred Ute prayer River teach me changeas falling leaves decompose in the formless current River teach me hopeas the source and end, both come from mountains River teach me how to get lostas two young lovers walk along your bank not needing to be found River teach me how to savor the […]
Looking Out From Stony Island
Carve out my tongueI will taste your wind Slice off my earsI will hear your waves Gouge out my eyesI will see your red sun setting Tear off my fingertips I will touch your stones For I do not need the presence of your solemn grandeur as it perishes along a silent lakeshore In the ashes of our ancestors inside […]
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 […]
Strength
To be believed, they say you must be bruised or ruptured, vaporized, turned to particles in the smoke, how poison ivy causes the skin to blister. Have they forgotten so quickly? Before laws and judges, there was Motherhood, lionesses fighting on the open plains. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, Moria […]
What You Cannot Help Naming
Hiking with children, in a nature park at noon, the world is sparkling and synth-laden. Without trying, the sacred ibis of thought is upon them, as their fingerprints singe burn marks of poetry in the bark of trees.To them, pine needles are hairbrushes for unicorns. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications […]
The Bobcat
Without pride, senses controlled,born or to be born, we met as hilarious strangers, each wanting something impossible.I wanted all beings like you to be happy. You wanted no being to deceive another. For a brief moment, we were sincere.Both of us, protected against the spirits of the dead,on a darkened street, on the outskirts of the city, waiting to cross over […]
The Birth of the Sacred Mirrors (for Alex Grey)
Birds settle on a tree for a while,and then go their separate ways again.There is no separate way apart from you.When I breathe, I can taste your breath,ablaze with an all consuming fire.When my heart aches,there is nothing you will not understand.Many have died in this house, but not you. Overtaken by this thing which men […]