Zen
selected by
the elements
you are my Blue
Mountain jewel
my eternal recurrence
made of sky
your fingers
slender like virgin pine
your glint
electrical like dewdrops
in the Sun’s reflection
falling asleep in the breeze
your lips
hungry with the fragrance of
daybreak, an empty valley
fractured by the boundaries
of physics, where you
can hear yourself happening
George Cassidy Payne is interested in the intersection of poetry, social justice, representations of spirituality, and concepts of self. He is a part-time professor of philosophy at the State University of New York (SUNY) and teaches workshops focusing on writing and philosophy. He holds a master’s degree in philosophical theology from Emory University. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in numerous journals, including Barnstorm Journal, Chronogram Magazine, Adelaide, the Adirondack Almanac, Tea House, The Mindful Word, Ink, Sweat, and Tears, the Scarlet Leaf Review, The Writing Disorder, Califragile, Zingara Poetry Review, Deep South Magazine, Allegro Poetry Review, and several others. His debut full-length collection, A Time Before Teachers, was released in 2019 from Cholla Needles Literary Press.