Description
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
Author Bio
He was nominated for 15 Pushcart and 13 Best of the Net awards. Winner of: the 2012 Big River Poetry Review's William K. Hathaway Award; 2013 Bill Holm Witness Poetry Contest; 2013 "Trees" Poetry Contest; 2014 Broadsided award; 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Contest; Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, June 2015, Editor's Choice; Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, Artist's Choice, November 2016; Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize, 2018. He won a Central New York Individual Artist Award and provided "Poetry on The Bus" which had 48 poems in local buses including 20 bi-lingual poems from 7 different languages. 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 21 full-length collections including the Blue Light Award 2019, The Temporary World, THE UNCERTAIN LOVER (Dos Madres Press, 2018), and SECRETS NO ONE MUST TALK ABOUT (Dos Madres Press, 2011). His recent books are Unfolding Towards Love (Wipf and Stock, 2020) and HARVEST TIME (Deebrook Editions, 2021). He is an editor for The Comstock Review, and he is judge for the New York State Fair Poetry Contest. Martin Willitts Jr. is a retired Librarian living in Syracuse, New York.
Author City: SYRACUSE, NY USA