Heart Break Wall

by Cathy Barber

after

Heart Break Wall

by Timothy Callaghan

Who hasn’t gone to the water’s edge,

stood scanning the breakwall and beyond,

watched the slap, slap over its ridge and

thought about their life. Have they been

helpful and kind, had enough fun, risked enough?

Have they put a toe in the foam creeping up

the sand or waded until their shorts were soaked

and the undertow rocked them off their feet,

startling their dormant heart. The sound of the surf

so hypnotic, memories circling out of reach.

Timothy Callaghan, Artist:

There is a brief moment in any given day between where I need to be and where I want to be that lingers. This moment is neither romantic nor nostalgic but demands my attention. The scene, which elicits this moment, allows me to reflect, reorganize and ultimately compose an image. I carefully observe the environment my daily routines expose me to through my practice of drawing and painting. The familiar experiences we encounter every day inspire and compel me to translate them to a two-dimensional picture plane. I am interested in the specific qualities that transcend the mundane and elevate a space to place.

Cathy Barber, Poet: Cathy Barber’s work has been widely published. A partial list of publications includes The San Francisco Bay Guardian, West Trestle Review, Kestrel, Literary Mama, paper wasp, Presence, Sierra Nevada College Review, AIM, Concho River Review, SLAB, Ballyhoo Stories, The Dos Passos Review, Sweet, and Tattoo Highway.

Additionally her work has appeared in several anthologies, most notably, An Eye For An Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11, which won the 2003 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles National Literary Award; Fire and Rain: Ecopoetry of California; and The Cancer Poetry Project Vol. 2, which won the Best Poetry Book of 2013, Midwest Book Awards

Ms. Barber’s work has received individual awards as well, including second place in the S. Portia Steele Memorial Award for Excellence in Poetry (2006) and second place in Gin Bender’s 2003 poetry contest. In 2016, her “Three Short Love Poems” was nominated for a Best of the Net award.

She has three chapbooks, two self-published and the third, Aardvarks, Bloodhounds, Catfish, Dingoes, published by Dancing Girl Press, 2018. A fourth manuscript was a quarter finalist in the 2014 Vine Leaves Vignette Collection contest. She is currently finishing a full length collection.

She has an MA in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from California State University, East Bay, and an MFA in Writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.  She taught for many years with California Poets in the Schools and served on the board. She has also served on the board of Literary Cleveland for two years.

Please enjoy this video for Ekphrastacy August 2020 in Response to Evolution:

To learn more about our current exhibition, Evolution, click here

To learn more about our Literary programs, click here

Most of Heights Arts’ programming is free! If you would like to show your support for our poetry programming you can text to give HERE, or learn the many ways you can support us HERE.