When Silence Blooms by Martin Willitts Jr.

There are quiet days,
when Emily Dickinson wrote
on scraps of found paper in her delicate cursive,

her pen was soundless with wonder,
her white sleeves wavering with her music,
hesitating only for the right word.

There are days when asters dream —
white bloom whispers, into long dashes —
the quiet hides inside the center.

The secret tentative voice
sews Emily’s poems into booklets,
messages given in the silence.

She keeps tuning the fretwork her heart,
the act of surrender
and it’s bright, sweet-tasting acceptance.

Martin Willitts Jr has 21 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, “The Temporary World”. His recent books are “Harvest Time” (Deerbrook Editions, 2021), “All Wars Are the Same War” (FutureCycle Press, 2022). His forthcoming book is “Not Only the Extraordinary are Exiting the Dream World (Flowstone Press, 2022).

Softly, Now by Martin Willitts Jr.

The white noise of snow smooshes on the window,
splats of lace doilies — the stuff dreams are made of —
a piano playing a song we don’t want to hear
but hear when traffic stops, and the roads are closed.

The world soothes with this closure of noise
and frantic movement, nothing to do
except wait it out, burrow out later,
hope love keeps us warm in the white-darkness winter.

The snow knows the exquisite pleasure of drifting,
dangling its promises of huddling in
so that couples can spend time together,
sharing breath, breathlessly, finding the touch of love,
how it is never cold to the touch, and if done right,
can be as softening as the smears of snowflakes.

Martin Willitts Jr has 21 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, “The Temporary World”. His recent books are “Harvest Time” (Deerbrook Editions, 2021), “All Wars Are the Same War” (FutureCycle Press, 2022). His forthcoming book is “Not Only the Extraordinary are Exiting the Dream World (Flowstone Press, 2022).

Listening into the Silence by Martin Willitts Jr.

In the quiet, morning is unburdened

the sky’s hibiscus color.

Abundance cascades of birdsong —

just a heartbeat away.

Too soon, the moment is over.

Light understands

the unexpected, the lament,

the surrender, the cold unsettling

surprising force of wonder and loss.

I listen into the silence

for instructions, hoping

a voice will answer,

not from within,

but from otherworldliness.

Martin Willitts Jr has 25 chapbooks including the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 20 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, “The Temporary World”. His recent book is "Unfolding Towards Love" (Wipf and Stock, 2020). 

Perfect and Terrifying by Martin Willitts Jr.

Rustling birdcalls cross the field

creating a turbulence in the upper branches,

shaking and quaking, rattling the trees,

creating a ruckus, a few aftershocks, quiet.

What caused the stir, what settled it?

Some hidden presence must have caused this

brief transference of power,

this immeasurable flux and tranquil resolve.

Maybe it was nothing, nothing at all —

just a momentary blast of uncertainty.

But once the heart is stirred,

it takes a while to recover.

The world contains both mystery

and subterfuge.

The birdcalls ceased — the quiet

turned more deafening, light diffused,

the forest dampening

with queries as to what makes silence

perfect and terrifying.   





Martin Willitts Jr has 24 chapbooks including the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 19 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, “The Temporary World”. His recent book is "Unfolding Towards Love" (Wipf and Stock, 2020).

The Death of a Loved One is Never Easy by Martin Willitts Jr.

Gather unsettled dark birds,

trying to get in the last word

before flying into the forest of loss.

No matter what we say,

there will be a day in the distance

when pain lessens —

that day is waiting to inhabit us.

Martin Willitts Jr has 24 chapbooks including the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 19 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, “The Temporary World”. His recent book is "Unfolding Towards Love" (Wipf and Stock, 2020).

In the Field by Martin Willitts Jr.

(A Villanelle)

I wanted to stay forever in the field,

turning the soil, finding the persistent,

to see if, like love, they would yield

to the forever, if the soil would be healed

by love. I was not resistant.

I wanted to stay Forever. In the field,

there were many choices that appealed —

choosing plants or trees all twisted,

to see, if like love, they would yield.

Like birds, sprung and wheeled,

all life was enlisted.

I wanted to stay forever in the field.

Flowers or trees were not concealed

but were seen, unassisted,

to see if, like love, they would yield.

Overwhelmed, in love, I kneeled.

Sadness and grief were released.

I wanted to stay forever in the field,

to see if like love they would yield.

Martin Willitts Jr has 24 chapbooks including the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 19 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, “The Temporary World”. His recent book is "Unfolding Towards Love" (Wipf and Stock, 2020).

Mourning Song by Martin Willitts Jr.

            *An aubade is a song from a door or window to a sleeping woman

Night has such a sleepless longing.

The heart-shaped moon peers through your window.

I cannot get enough of you

and your dreams, the finality of church hour bells.

Wake up. Come to me, ecstatic music,

arms of absence need filling

with the shape of mourning doves murmuring

immense sadness.

The day is not over

when two lovers embrace and cannot let go.

Window shades should be opening

a thousand awakening eyes of love.

Sleep has you, cooing doves in your ear,

hushing you into a soft music and silence.

All I can do is stand out here

in the wretchedness of stars exploding.

Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections.  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019). 

A River Rushing By by Martin Willitts Jr.

My son doesn’t want to admit we are connected.

In fact, he wants to obliterate that fact.

I could tell him about our similarities,

but he doesn’t want to hear my voice.

He doesn’t want to know what he needs to know.

The more he denies, the more it remains the truth.

Once he was born, he was a part of me.

An invisible river connects us and divides us.

He is also the river rushing by

trying to get somewhere else.





Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections.  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019). 

Defeated by Martin Willitts Jr.

He tried to fight the wind blowing him back.

He had an urgency to get somewhere

and lost, cursing like an artesian,

the language of failure.

Every wish he’d ever had was taken,

torn down, blasted, shotgunned —

every brilliant idea, tossed into a ravine.

He could take a survey of his life and find

nothing but debris, the knife edges of insults,

to degrees of separation, the longing

always returning like a plague.

Every failure was razor-sharp —

the steel mill closed, windows rock-smashed

and turning blind eyes; the stillborn

he had no money to bury properly;

the calico blotches found in his chest x-ray.

He couldn’t keep this up.

He’d done this for far too long.

When he went into the bar, he wanted to fight,

be stomped on, bleed out, and maybe,

just maybe, then, the pain would end.

There was so much sadness wherever he looked.






Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections.  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019). 

Gardening by Martin Willitts Jr.

It was getting warmer, so I removed my jacket.

I kept digging in the same area to plant vegetables.

No matter how many times I pitchfork

and deep-shovel, I’d find surprises that don’t belong:

this year, a spoon; a silver key, bent askew;

a box cutter; a zippo lighter; a rubber drain stopper.

I was shifting dirt through a strainer and found a dime.

I was searching for worms. I found leaves I mulched;

several rocks of different sizes; a tree root, wide as a fist.

I found half a walnut shell the squirrel hid for later.

I can testify to the strength of the sudden gust.

It flapped around my spring coat as I chased it.

It took away the mourning dove’s song from its throat

to clear over the garage, into a neighbor’s yard.





Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections.  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019). 

Only the Unbearable Silence Travels Here by Martin Willitts Jr.

Thousands of wildflowers have come

and gone, taking their colors with them.

A small thing, this untraceable silence,

allowing me to notice

what cannot be seen:

near the water-lined beech trees,

some pale purple-blue spring flowers

of the common hepatica,

emerge from rootstalks under leaves;

they only open a week or two —

such a narrow window of time.

They are already bending without wind,

timing to open at the onset of night,

listening for the movement of water

and light.

Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019). 

During the Darkest Day / Nothing Happening by Martin Willitts Jr.

During the Darkest Day

Although winter solstice is upon me,

darkening every corner of my house,

there is always ambient light, a flicker,

a wavering of love, a greening of house plants,

a nub on a tree waiting to become a leaf,

a sparrow darning light through

to the feeder, a whimpering of snowflakes.

Nothing Happening

they say nothing happens

but early dew-light

shudders low leaves

seasons are restless

like sparrow wings

whispering in flight

light flashes upwards

rubbing the deep sleep

from the sky

if left alone

the earth will return

to its natural state

intermingling larkspur

and daylights of sunflowers

their power to surprise

an outbreak of strewn leaves

try to escape

looping away

into the burgeoning last light

pretending to be streaking birds

and they say nothing ever happens

Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian. He has over 20 chapbooks, plus 15 full-length collections  His most recent chapbook is "You Enter, and It All Falls Apart" (Flutter Press, 2019). 

Whatever We Are Doing in Life by Martin Willitts Jr.

Whatever we are doing in life

can’t possibly be as important as

what we could be doing.

Stop whatever we are doing. Think:

what good could we be doing;

and, why aren’t we doing it?

Days keep floating by.

We can never catch them.

What would we do with them if we could?

All summer, bees are transferring

their loads into heavenly oils.

What have we been doing?

All winter, trees plan new leaves.

The language of love billows on the sky.

What are we doing?

The horizon is rumpling with hills.

Whatever was crazy with business halted,

relaxed its breath to admire what is here.

What is taking us so long?

Go out. Explore what is provided.

There is some for you, some for me.

Martin Willitts Jr has 20 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 11 full-length collections including forthcoming full-lengths includes “The Uncertain Lover” (Dos Madres Press, 2018), and “Home Coming Celebration” (FutureCycle Press, 2019).

Sonnet: Midsummer by Martin Willitts Jr.

Not since the rain wavered over our garden 

has anyone noticed the small violets 

or weeded the grass between the onions 

whose green tests for rain like fingertips.

No one noticed the birds blanketing the sky 

never singing. We never saw the switchgrass, 

although it was in every field. 

It was late; the trillium was over.

Midsummer is limping along, suppressing an urge 

to laugh high degrees of sweltering heat.

The hidden is meant to be left alone.

The secret vocabulary of rain is dark inside, 

vicious clouds. The fields praise rain. 

Birds distribute seeds across endless acres.

Martin Willitts Jr has over 20 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 11 full-length collections including “Dylan Thomas and the Writing Shed” (FutureCycle Press, 2017) and “Three Ages of Women” (Deerbrook Editions, 2017).

Sonnet: Becoming Stone by Martin Willitts Jr.

The rain clacks on stones, chanting

as carefully as snowmelt. Perhaps, it is rain

from the Pleiades: seven doves or sisters fleeing.

A heron stands near water’s edge on the largest rock,

while rain deepens the experience of meditation.

The heron listens to the messages, the sacred

chants, telling the heron when the world ends.

The rain takes its time telling this news.

I see the heron cocking its head towards words.

I need to learn the pace of stones, 

before I’d understand the slowed-down

words of rocks from the Creation of stars:

time is less than one rain drop; what are you doing,

when you could be merging with life?







Martin Willitts Jr won the 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Contest; Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2015, Editor’s Choice; Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, Artist’s Choice, November 2016, and a Central New York Individual Artist Award for "Poetry On The Bus". 

Sand Cranes in Rain by Martin Willitts Jr.

It is straining rain. One glance —

it’s entirely possible the sun will not emerge today.

My window ripples with rain.

Does it rain elsewhere in the galaxy? 

A green heron folded into itself like an umbrella.

Even rain cannot wash out the miraculous.

There are days, where I feel out of place, 

like I’ve stepped into this world

as the only mystery 

not worth understanding.

We get glimpses of raw moments 

hidden in plain sight, 

simple as wildflowers 

placed infrequently in the fields 

like after-thoughts, wild as sand cranes 

startled into confused flight.

Those cranes, shrieking into the rain, 

is a music we seldom hear.

Martin Willitts Jr has over 20 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press), plus 11 full-length collections including “How to Be Silent” (FutureCycle Press, 2016) and “Dylan Thomas and the Writing Shed” (FutureCycle Press, 2017).

This One Blush of a Moment by Martin Willitts Jr.

we are crunching dry pine needles

in the contour of land

wind glittering with light rain

tinking among the Douglas firs

we stumble on an uneven path

a banner of black-cap chickadees 

chase from maple branch to branch

like there is no tomorrow

often there is no certainty 

there will be tomorrow

right now

it is just this very good morning

surging wind ushering in fall

this one blushed moment

is what we need






Martin Willitts Jr is a retired Librarian living in Syracuse, NY. His poems have appeared in Blue Fifth Review, Inflecionist Review, Nine Mile Magazine, Comstock Review, and others.  He is the winner of 2013 Bill Holm Witness Poetry Contest; 2014 Broadsided award; 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Award; and, Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2015, Editor’s Choice.