is that death is like taking off a tight
shoe. A basic inseparability prevents
us from letting our feet touch the grass.
I learned from him that meditation
has no reason. It is the first sign of
madness. The silence of interminable
chatter.
What I learned from Ram Dass is to close your eyes and listen to the symbols.
Listen to the hum of the world, and just play
with the eardrums. Squeeze them like boiled
lemons, leaving only the squirting energy of life behind.
What I learned from Ram Dass is how to groove
with the eternal now. To awake like the rising dew,
accepting even my cowlick.
Watching YouTube, drinking coffee in a Prague
hotel, what I learned is that there is no real difference
between here and now, and that I am beautiful because of it.
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 the USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, the Havana Times, the South China Morning Post, the Buffalo News, and more.