somewherein the biofield farmhands announce youbuttery blondeand sweet McIntoshapple blushthey gather around your crib of turf and hail 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 Fisher College, and 3:16 Journal. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South […]
nature
Butterflies and Other People
For two years, I lived on the edge of woods, on the outskirts of Chattanooga, Tennessee, between a sewage plant, an American Indian burial ground, and the state mental hospital. Outside my house I saw a butterfly, the most radiant being I had ever seen — blue and black and ivory, incandescent. A friend later […]
In the biofield
farm hands announce sheer lightyour cantaloupeblonde hair the way vinesrelax over the necks of grapes 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. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The […]
Spider Bite
a kissso patientstill in themoutha seedcrouching stinglessbuzzingcoveredwith pinkand emeraldbeadwork 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. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South China […]
NO
Frost on the ground,Condensation on the window.Maybe something brittlebroke along the way; I’ve learned there’s no such thingAs a perfect triangleAnd now there doesn’t seemThat much to say. Between seasons,Colours indistinct,Painted life in shadesNot quite of grey, No stone to be castBetween guilt and innocence,And now there doesn’t seemThat much to say. Water on the […]
There is a calm
and steadyloneliness to the half notes of sheetmetal-roofedcabins in a hailstorm 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. George’s blogs, essays and letters have appeared in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Havana Times, South China Morning […]
Animal
You call me animal but I am not your predator. You bear your teeth to mebut I cannot see past your smile. You are nocturnal, like all hunters of fame, yet your eyes are domesticated. Your ears are attuned to the sounds of warm-blooded noises and North America means nothing on your map. You wear your hair with feathers, eagle feathers and heron feathers. Your […]
A Scene from Cumberland Bay
Before his sister could budge him out of the way,Mendon climbsdown the rabbit hole to a window in the stars where everything worth seeing is hidden inside a half-devoured pine cone. 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 […]
After Meditating On My Front Porch
I again realize that mindfulness is noticingstillness, how the inkon my paper has more than one color of black and feelsfluid as silk. And how the hard plastic wheelsof a stroller across the street,scraps the gravel, making soundslike crackling embers.It’s noticing the stillness of a solitary pine needle pulsing in the sighing wind. An eternal thing that must be […]
Nature’s Deadly Wake-Up Call!
In this new series with Bro. Ananda Kumaraseri, we’ll explore the Buddhist teachings in the context of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Bro. Kumaraseri will focus on how we can reorient our thinking to one of authentic Buddhist liberation, so that we are no longer constrained by old assumptions and biases that are hurting our chances […]