These are a couple of the books I’ve been reading, that I recommend, and which I’m reviewing or have recently reviewed. Poetry and Zen: Letters and Uncollected Writings of R. H. Blyth (Shambhala, 2020)
poetry
Fire Haiku
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
Poem for Chris La Tray
you pour coffee into your cupin montana it turns into tea in my cupin scotland Support Our Dharma Work
In Essence
Poetry does not bring me peace. Or if it does,it is the peace of a baby sleeping, only to be woken by a nightmare.Poetry does not bring me relaxation. Or if it does,it is the relaxation of a perch eating a frog underneath a rolling country brook.Poetry does not bring me reconciliation. Or if it […]
Georgia O’Keefe’s Taos
is time collecting prints on the thumbs of sage smudged hills.A translucent blue topaz lightdisappearingbeneath half-eaten pine cones. 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 […]
Seven Haiku
winter morning —daylight arriveswithout a story snow plungesfrom tower block ledgeslike falling bodies duckling left behindpaddles to catch upwith mother and siblings children playing in ruins of millme 40 summers agowalking by today young woman pushing prambruise beneath her eyemorning rain zazen together, one breath4000 miles butno distance between us winter street —dog turd on […]
A Time of Survival
Carried in handwoven Amish wicker baskets from the root cellarlike pickled garlicsealed in mason jars with yellow Ginghamfabric toppersthe world needs poems. 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, […]
A Buddhist Reading of “Happy as a Dog’s Tail”
As a film and literature enthusiast, I am always on the look out for stories that evoke the Dharma. Today, I have a gander at the poem “Happy as a Dog’s Tail” by Polish Poet Anna Świrszczyńska (aka Anna Swir). Happy as a Dog’s Tail, by Anna Swir Happy as something unimportantand free as a […]
I awoke in the belly of a poem
no one is talking about, not since I stopped believingin the power of words to give birth to my dreams. Like Jonah. Swallowed. Smellinglike krill slime sticking to thewalls of a soft, rubbery bladder,all I can see is the darkness of my ignorance. I grope aroundlike a beetle turned on its shell. spinning around the stainless floorboard.