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POEMS BY GEORGE CASSIDY PAYNE: Alchemy, An Age Before Teachers and more

Last updated: June 28th, 2020

In The Beginning Was the Word

The origin
of all form.

Swirled into the name of God,
it is a voice asking a flower to open.

I belong to that voice, and so do you.
You belong to me and I belong to you.

We are our children’s children.
We are not afraid.

We are lovers.
We are bodies

bathed in the same light that takes
about a second to travel

from the Moon
to the Earth.

He Went There

Some days I wake up
and look into the mirror
and ask myself if I am
really human. I know that
I speak. I know that I
symbolize and wear the
skin that has the blood of
mammals pulsating through
its veins. I know that I am not
a fish or reptile. I walk upright
and the monkeys are not doing
it my way. Yet, if I am honest, I
am not always so sure how different
I am. Even a chimp went to space.

Treat Water

in a copper basin
with pink rose
petals under a
salt lamp.

Be kind to it.
Play Mozart and
Chopin for it,
and be a friend to it.

Be a moon enticing
it to flow open, as
orchids do when
left unguarded.

Alchemy

More coveted than gold
from lead is her belly laugh

while chased
around the kitchen floor

More magical than wine from milk
is the wise mischief in her smile

when held
before bed with a fragile stillness

The master alchemists of China
would do no better.

An Age Before Teachers

No one taught our teachers.
They just turned shoulder blades
into rafts and thoughts into time.
Obedient to what we were all waiting for,
yet possessed by the impatience of gods.

Henry Miller

America is a problem
to get over, not a thing
to be proud of.

Get over it. Don’t be so
possessive of something
that you do not understand.

Hate America.

Hate it with every ounce of passion
that you can muster. Hate it.
Make it something hated.

If it seeks to control you and become you,
or if it gives you an excuse to settle,
hate it. It is the enemy of creativity.

The Geometry of Angels

Just as songbirds
feed from our palms
along our favorite trail,
I am seeking an experience
of being alive.
That is my religion.
The naked goodness of your smile
when we decide to keep walking.

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image: George Payne

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