Tangle of Summaries
by Sam Barbee
The candle dwindles silently,
cannot renew ample wick to retain light.
A walnut tree topples in wind.
Leaves cling beyond autumn’s early peak.
Gray bark strains to harden
as it feels the woodman’s saw.
Perched on the blunt stump, gray squirrel
nibbles tough hull for fruit, puzzled by aftertaste.
***
Sam Barbee’s newest collection is titled 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 throughout England. His poems have appeared recently in Poetry South, Salvation South, and upcoming in Cave Wall, among others; plus online journals Dead Mule School of Literature, American Diversity Report, Grand Little Things, Verse-Virtual, and Medusa’s Kitchen. He is a two-time Pushcart Nominee. He served as President of the Winston-Salem Writers, and also NC Poetry Society, and is one of the originators of the Poetry In Plain Sight — now in its thirteenth year — a poetry initiative to feature NC poets on broadside posters and display them in NC towns statewide.
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