Maybe a strange thing — a college townat the wrong time of year — the students are gonebut you’re still around,wandering through bookshops,empty art galleries — tired, sick of it,in a quiet cafe youlose your temper, get upand walk out,leaving yourself sitting over coffee. Support Our Dharma Work
reflection
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 […]
Like a Bottle of 10 Year McKenna
Color in whiskymeans nothingIt has no meaningother than pleasure Taste is everything 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 […]
In a Glasgow Street
two seagulls peck at dead pigeontwo pigeons stand watching Support Our Dharma Work
Birds of Prey
“Most people are onthe world, not in it”Muir said that so long ago but he was wrong Most people are outsidethe world, doubting they know how to be among itRiding under a hawk’s wingsthe air forgets what it means to be useless 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. […]
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 […]
No Order of Things
my feet knit the socksthat knit her knitting-needlesthat knit herand send her to the riverwhere she finds the rockthat sets her on a pathto where i’m waiting for herthough neither of us knows it Support Our Dharma Work
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 […]
3:20 AM
have faithin the next breatha deep breathin…inhale it without peace or war. 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 […]