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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: Whiteface Mountain

October 24, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Whiteface Mountain

In your weary legs,
belong to her summit
without rejoicing, yet full.

Scurry about like a chipmunk
drunk on the oxygen of being.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: Spreading Ashes in the Ausable

October 10, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne 2 Comments

Spreading Ashes in the Ausable

more coveted than wine
from milk, the master
alchemists of China could
do no better than these clouds
churning into rivers,
the way cottongrass renews itself
or how a son returns in time to let go.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: Humpbacks of the Hudson

September 26, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne 1 Comment

Humpbacks of the Hudson

Before the finned
dinosaurs of the icy
depths were
disappointed by
the steamships
of men, they cast
their ballads into
the velvet abyss,
waiting as mothers
do with untamed hearts,
big as school buses.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: Photography

September 5, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Photography

is the waterfall
carved by the
elements, a river
bed ticking away,
layer by layer, the
salty, smoked scent
of sycamore mist.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: Down by the Pond

August 8, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne 1 Comment

Down by the Pond

When I was 10,
I had a gift. I knew
what silence
meant to frogs.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: Finally

July 25, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Finally

After roasting chicken
and asparagus on the stones,
they used to hold each other,
the same way the turquoise Moon
holds the storm, gently over
a lean-to on the Cedar River Flow.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: art, Cedar River, Poetry

Poetry: Encounter on the Moose River

July 18, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Encounter on the Moose River

Startled by steps-
that New Balance
bounce- like Boeing
jets gliding through
the metallic twilight
of a perfect aloneness,
a blue heron hides be
tween two teal wings,
folding and glittering,
holding eyelids near the
fleeting shadows of a
river’s moving stillness.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: Adirondack Sunset

July 11, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

Adirondack Sunset

on a pillow
of basalm perfume,
she went to sleep. It
was preposterously
elegant and I was drunk.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: A Definition of Time

June 27, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

A Definition of Time

On a dead-end block in
a Raquette Lake cabin,
she lays down to drink
alone, not giving a damn
about being married
in the finest old oak casks
or being distinctive with
a hint of perfect smoke
and peat. She just lays there.
While outside her bedroom
window, a slow-rolling plastic
scrapes loose the hard gravel.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

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

Poetry: My Turn

June 13, 2020 by George Cassidy Payne Leave a Comment

My Turn

When it was my turn
to go in

I sat cross-legged
by the ventilator

and told my buddy
goodbye.

I could have cried
but he deserved more

than that. He deserved
what carries no weight.

Time.
Before the lungs fill

with river water,
and the dream oozes

away from fingers like
the slime of drowning

lotus petals
caught between the rocks.

Read More Poems From The New York Almanack HERE.

Filed Under: Arts Tagged With: Poetry

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