Down where fingershold a windscourged turbulence,lurid and buriedin the fractures, your mountain graceblisters like iron smelted, and the mosaic of youreyes light all over.Wrapped in cold teardrops,below the grit of exiled scents, at your peak I feel astronomical, like Asimov’s balloons risingthrough a diaphanous fog. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in […]
poetry
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 […]
After the Flowers
Into the hush a motherneeds when she strokesthe soft temples of her infantson, outside the dewdropsemerge once more. After theflowers are gone, on a blanketof peat moss, feeding the frogsand snakes, they emerge,hurtling toward the starvedemptiness of another daybreak. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has been included in such publications as the Hazmat Review, […]
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, […]
Weightless Noises
Wounded, we feel witnessedby time-by 200 years of war,a theater of bitter clouds and the breeze rippling the surface. When we glint at the sun, we sail through the carnage. That electrical charge. Thatslanderous appetite of a morning’suncertain future. When we glint, we are back in time.The sound of piercing skin, thunder and other weightless noises. George Cassidy […]
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 […]
Swept Away
Swept away.That boy.Out to sea. Taken bythe storm.His motherdid not loseher grip. Her fingerswere his body. She clung withwhat she had. 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 […]
Blue Mountain Jewel
Plunged intothe crevasses of alove untrammeled,you are my BlueMountain jewel,my wind-scourgedbase selected bythe elements. Burnished with slow infrared heat, youroriginal grace is liketiny iron grommetsholding my turbulence. 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, […]
Find Your Tree
By George Cassidy Payne Find your treeand everythingZen made of sky.For the worldhas gone wrong.The gamma raysare off. The heartis anachronisticand losing powereach day. Old andin the way, waitingfor the morning todeclare the peculiarcondition of a tree-that boundary intime and space, thatwave like disturbance. George Cassidy Payne is a poet from Rochester, NY. His work has […]
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 […]