POEMS BY GEORGE CASSIDY PAYNE: The Way of Zen, Storytellers, Sensual Machine, The Plantation, Passing Through

is to climb
the flattest place
on earth. To
become a geologic
paradox. To crack
into the Earth,
like a creative
carving of erosion.
The way of Zen
is when fire meets
ice, like a thundering
waterfall made quiet by
the sacred nature of rocks.