The ocean has its way with me
Crashing waves pacing my heart
A razor-edged horizon parsing my soul
Dividing this from my other lives
Salt, the spice of calm
Breeze, the whisper of the beloved
Sand scouring away at my calloused conscience
Heat melting my hardened heart
The ocean would have its way with me
if I would but sit and stare awhile or saunter in the shallow surf
-Russell Willis
Russell Willis emerged as a poet in 2019 and has since appeared in over thirty journals and twenty anthologies. Russell grew up in and around Texas, was vocationally scattered throughout the Southwest and the Western Great Plains for two decades, and finally settled in Vermont with his wife, Dawn.