Gasp
Ocean's
half-breaths
pant past
dusk.
Breakers
heave into night –
sand
bleached white
Tuneless
jetty grinds
bluster.
Jagged granite
locks-in
tide. Sea-spray
detaches
over sand.
Crest
over ankles.
Pin-prick
of gloom –
all
becomes true.
Pin-point
cruel moment
all is
undone.
Sam Barbee
Sam Barbee has a new collection, Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing). He has three previous poetry collections, including That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), which was a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016. Also, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag) which chronicles family travels in England.
His poems have appeared recently in Salvation South, Literary Yard, Snapdragon, Asheville Poetry Review, and Adelaide Literary Magazine, Ariel Chart Journal, Poetry South, among others; plus on-line journals American Diversity Report, Verse Virtual, The Voices Project, and Medusa’s Kitchen; and is a two-time Pushcart nominee.