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George Cassidy Payne

George Cassidy Payne is an independent writer, domestic violence counselor, and adjunct instructor in the humanities at Finger Lakes Community College.

George's blogs, essays, letters, poems, and photographs have been published in a wide variety of national and international outlets such as USA Today, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, National Public Radio, The Buffalo News, Albany Times-Union, Syracuse Post Standard, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, The Toronto Star, The Minority Reporter, Chronogram Journal, Ovi Magazine, CounterPunch, Moria Poetry Journal, Ampersand Literary Review, Adirondack Daily Enterprise, and more.

George's first book of poetry, A Time Before Teachers, is available at Amazon.com.

Poetry: Lake Flower

June 26, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Lake Flower

here morning opens
as a lotus petal

all at once
in all directions

under the kind pressure
of twilight

a translucent
blue topaz feeling

disappearing into
an ancient softness

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: Poetry

Poetry: Stormy Night

June 19, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Stormy Night

There is a loneliness to hail drops
on a tin-roofed cabin.

The woods and flowers and secrets of
mountains are lonely.

So are the trails, ponds, and bridges;
the vanished sources looking for a beginning.

Dripping drops a million years in the making.
Falling asleep in the wounded soil of dreams.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Poetry

Poetry: Altostratus

June 5, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Altostratus

Pressure is in our breath.

Winds in the north veer to the right,
while those to the south veer to the left,

as the light emitted from the sun, turns our
windmills and guides our sailboats.

Just as an airplane stays aloft due to
differing air densities on each side of its wings,
and the ocean of air moves like oceans do.

Evaporating clouds. Air bubbles in the sea.

And didn’t you know that sunsets are merely
filtered rays of red passing through the atmosphere?

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

Poetry: A Mountain Prayer

May 29, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne 2 Comments

A Mountain Prayer

I kneel so that I may remember this
without words, this mountain without
a wasted breath speaks and I want to
remember the way I felt listened to.

So I close my eyes and breathe in the aroma

I smell peeled apple and peppermint, moss
and dried roses, orange blossom water in my throat
and I taste the words of the mountain, a few drops
that make me swirl in wild silence

the mountain is calm, always
in the way it notices the offerings of mortals
it stands untouched, in my arms
as a hay field holds the Sun’s amber light.

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

Poetry: The Way Archimedes Proved Ideas

May 22, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne 1 Comment

The Way Archimedes Proved Ideas

If all the pencils and pens
in the world disappeared,

I would write your name
in the ashes on the hearth.

If all the paper burned
into smoke and computers

went suddenly dark,
I would scribble it,

in the bath, in the suds
of my oily skin.

If the damp sands washed
away with the tide,

leaving the beach alone,
I would go to the floor of

my basement and draw it
in the dust.

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

Poetry: Never Judge

May 8, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Never Judge

a bourbon
by the memories

of childhood
judge it by the way

it makes you remember
being a child

never wasting
any chance

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

Poetry: Afterwards

April 24, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Afterwards

the husband was
relaxed, as the wife

held him in the half
finished silence

where he hoped
to tell her everything

the way dry oak leaves
fall quietly in the lake

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

Poetry: Ausable

April 17, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne 1 Comment

Ausable

the master alchemists
of Benares
would do no better

the torrent in this river
lets go of me
like an invisible spell

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: art, Ausable River, Poetry

Poetry: Stropharia semiglobata

April 3, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Stropharia semiglobata

I awoke to see
pupils floating
in balls of light

In that shade
enchanted by
the music of

Time missed,
they hovered
in the darkness.

Like a guru
meditating.
Strange creatures

haunting every room
of my brain. Oval and
mushroom shaped.

Like the red and white
knapsack of a dwarf, so
mischievous and charming.

As quaint and extraterrestrial
as an English fairy tale.

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

Poetry: I Know You Know

March 20, 2021 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

I Know You Know

I accepted your apology
implicitly, but the aftertaste
of those emails stuck in
between my teeth like a
kernel of popcorn. I tried to
pick it out, you know I did.
Yet, it remains below the
crevice of the gums, a half
buried fleck of fake gold.

Read More Poems From the New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts Tagged With: art, Poetry

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