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Ekphrastic poetry. Martin Willitts Jr. goes beyond the verbal description of visual art to entertain an expansive impression based on the work so full of imagination that it illuminates an essential aspect of art appreciation. His synergy parallels the art like an atonal inversion that reveals a celebration absent the art itself.

Viewing nature as a spiritual discipline requires focus, quiet intention, listening for the smallest noises, and watching how change happens. Let these poems guide you as you enter the world. Let them slow you down and focus your attention.

Martin Willitts Jr.'s new book, Rain Followed Me Home, is filled to the brim with imagery that encourages us to ponder our relationship with the natural world. The opening poem, Disquieting, reminds us that although we are often caught in difficult, transitory moments, mindfulness is still possible. Each sonnet demonstrates a surreality of line that is juxtaposed with careful attention to detail, rewarding the reader with a deep emotional resonance. That resonance holds hands with the rain that sits at the center of this collection's heart. The beautiful, luminous last poem closes the collection with a reminder that "There is much to love in this world." -Christine Klocek-Lim, editor of Autumn Sky Poetry DAILY and author of Dark Matter.

All Wars Are the Same War portrays the effects of war on the soldiers, the civilians caught in between, and the land. This collection of poems is divided into three sections. The first focuses on wars in the past up until the Iraq war, including the Civil War, both world wars, and the Russian Revolution from different viewpoints. The second section is about the author's own involvement in Vietnam as a field medic for the pacifist Quaker organization, American Friends Service Committee, which portrays the insanity of war like the novel, Mash. The third section is about his return, wounded, during the Anti-War movement and how vets were mistreated when they returned. The book ends with trying to resolve PTSD issues. It is a homecoming for the wounded and survivors, often seen from the victims' viewpoint. As the title says, all wars are the same war, and war seems endless.

"Readers are transported to the impressionist era that began with Eduard Manet in this colorful collection of ekphrastic poetry. In this collective, the author has presented storytelling poems revealing the time and place of the artists, their inspiration, and how these paintings not only brought about a new movement in art, but how these paintings affected the world around them

I suppose I could not have asked for a more luminous pairing than that of a favorite poet of mine with that of a favorite artist. And so it was with immense delight that I read Martin Willitts, Jr.'s Irises, the Lightning Conductor for Van Gogh's Illness, a moving collection of primarily persona poems that bring prayerful attention to Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. One can feel all the way through this book the poet's inhabitation of another artist's skin and soul, his simpatico with another man much like the startle of white off-to-the-side iris among purple irises, his layered understandings of Vincent the mystic and Vincent the ill outcast. This is a book of love poems in the way that Van Gogh understood love, in the way that made me want to drop to my knees the time I saw Starry Night over the Rhone. How perfect that the final poem is about that very painting! Prepare to feel rapt before this poetry. Prepare to want to fall to your knees. - Susan Deer Cloud, Hunger Moon, Shabda Press, 2014 Martin Willitts, Jr.'s collection of ekphrastic Van Gogh poems are as full of light and color as the paintings they depict. Willitts goes beyond merely showing us pictures; his knowledge of the life and times of the Dutch master is evident as his poems delve deeply into the painter's meanings, motivations, and mysteries, and many of the poems present the paintings through Vincent's eyes and in his voice. This volume is a treasure both for lovers of fine poetry and of Van Gogh. - John Lambremont, editor of Big River Poetry Review, and author of Dispelling The Indigo Dream, Local Gems Poetry Press, 2014 In Irises, the Lightning Conductor for Van Gogh's Illness, Martin Willitts, Jr., nationally renowned poet, has used his own art and craft to explore the mind, heart, and art of beloved painter Vincent Van Gogh. In this volume of 63 works, each a masterpiece in its own right, Willitts exquisitely and intimately immerses himself in the life and work of the artist, often donning Van Gogh's own persona. Most poems are inspired by or based on a specific painting, with a special emphasis on Van Gogh's iconic florals (such as the title work). Each is informed by a deep love, respect and understanding of the painter's life and work and imagines Van Gogh's inspiration and thinking, while the poet's own voice simultaneously and surely emerges on the canvas of the page. If ever two artists' hearts, minds and souls could be melded across time, space and genre, this volume proves the possibility to stunning and moving effect. - Beverly Choltco-Devlin, Library Manager, Tacoma Public Library

Animals, birds, nature, love and the human essence interfacing with it and each other. A fine read by a very established writer. This book is divided into four sections all of which are filled with a rich tapestry of words carefully woven into heart matter by the author.

Poetry. "Martin Willitts Jr's SECRETS NO ONE MUST TALK ABOUT is likea small verbal portrait of a Mojave soul-scape. Infused withthe same sweet but rugged solemnity as writers like Lorca andVallejo (whose ghosts flicker in the margins), SECRETS NO ONE MUST TALK ABOUT reflects a dangerous frontier-town ethos that isalive with curious and unmentionable secrets, the hidden litanyof daily griefs, that is the poet's private curse and blessing todredge cautiously into the light. A strange and marvelous work, soft as wetted sand, hard as a sun-bleached stone."--Seth Jani

Poetry. "In THE UNCERTAIN LOVER, Martin Willitts, Jr. presents love in all of its richness and flavor from the wistful yet resolute title poem to his remarkable poems that inhabit the art, mind, and soul of the passionate painter Frida Kahlo where she 'hold[s] [her husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera] in [her] forehead like a third eye, / like a gypsy's curse.' Willitts's depiction of love goes beyond romantic and sexual love to familial love and love for humanity and nature, especially in 'The Ancestry of Maize' and 'Speaking the Language of Deer.' This symphony of loves builds to the crescendo of 'A Love Supreme,' the poet's tribute to jazz giant John Coltrane, a poem that blends incantation and insight to transport the reader beyond music and biography to the meaning of Coltrane's phrase."--Marianne Szlyk

The thirty-six woodblock prints that were the inspiration for this collection of writings were made by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). The pieces show different views of Mount Fuji from various waystations where people would go to look at the beautiful mountain. The writings in this book are haibun, a literary form originating in Japan that combines prose-autobiography, diary entries, essay, or short story-and poetry-often haiku. Hokusai was in his seventies when he produced the Mount Fuji series; the author, Martin Willitts Jr., was seventy years old when he began studying the prints, attempting to merge himself with Hokusai.