is our first religion our most primeval ritual to be remembered by those who have beennearly forgotten is the holiest experience 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 […]
religion
Rise
where there is no religion but God and moon and landand sea and the gathering of otherswho are ready for you to believe. 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 […]
Heaven and Earth
I am left timeless. My skin is timeless. Like the rusty mercury gauge in an old Chevy. I am gazing upon Christ. I am aggressive.My density is aggressive. I am an out of body experience. My blood pressure drops to zero. I am a cardiac arrest. The feeling of absolute resolution. I am the hangings, shootings, and burnings. I am a pathof […]
Driving Through Seattle
Drizzled.Plundered.Poured.Like sunlight.Like religion.Like sleet againsta car window.I am a gorgeouscatastrophe 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 […]
Conversion
Wild and silent asthe desert of an arcticlandscape, the one eventthat never happens the wayit is supposed to. 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 […]
Does God Exist? (for J. Krishnamurti)
If God created you,you must be extraordinary.If God made you, you mustbe beautiful, full of delight. Look at yourself? Are you thosethings?Either we have created God orGod has created us.In India I have been toldthat there are over 3,000gods.The irony of it!Thought worshiping thought.Oneself worshipped and called God.Notice it, The better part of ourselves. The local gods […]
Wry and Kind Piety: Revisiting Donald Scripps in “The History Boys”
Just under a decade ago, I went through a The History Boys phase (both the play and film)—perhaps due to lingering memories of my high school years in an all-boy’s institution and reliving echoes of the camaraderie, bravado, and insecurities that dog such a testosterone-saturated environment. I resonated with one of the characters so much […]
Mongolia’s Buddhist Diplomacy and India’s Union of Religious and Foreign Policy
The Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF), along with Indian, Japanese, and Mongolian partners, hosted its third Samvad (which, in Hindi, means “dialogue”) conference in Ulaanbaatar over last Friday and the weekend. As reported in BDG’s news article on the conclave, Mongolian political and religious leaders took this event very seriously. In his closing speech on the […]
Is Buddhism the Problem?
I have recently been recommending Sam Harris’ meditation app. Waking Up to some of my atheist friends who would not go near anything that smacked of religion. I like this app more than some other secular meditation apps I have come across, mainly because it doesn’t simply aim to help people to become less stressed. […]
Surrendering
(Inspired by Dr. Wayne Dyer) We must remember the good. So much of it is worth remembering. A garage where we park our souls. Weighing the life we live andwhat it leaves behind. We must get back into the meditation.A path that you can be on if you just let go of the need to go somewhere. Saying what you have […]