Martin Willitts Jr has had
publications in Big City Lit,
Hurricane Blues (anthology),
Bent Pin, Slow Trains, Primal
Sanities (anthology),
Qarrtsiluni, Ibbetson Street,
Allegheny River Anthology, and
others. He has a print
chapbook "Falling In and Out
of Love" (Pudding House
Publications, 2005), an online
chapbook "Farewell--the
journey now begins" on (www.
languageandculture.net 2006,
in archives), a full length
book of poems with his art
"The Secret Language of the
Universe" (March Street Press,
2006), print chapbook
“Lowering Nets of Light”
(Pudding House Publications,
2007), online chapbook “News
from the Front” (www.
slowtrains.com, 2007), edited
a poetry anthology about
cancer, “Alternatives to
Surrender” (Plain View Press,
2007), and an online chapbook
of haiku with his artwork,
“Words & Paper”
(www.threelightsgallery.com
2008).





Mending More Than Socks

(Based on the painting, “Mending Socks” by Archibald J. Motley, a
member of the Harlem Renaissance movement)


She has mended a generation of socks.
She is old as the waxed fruit in the bowl.
Her hands are furrowed as years in the fields.
There were times when she felt
like she would never be done,
she would find herself repairing the hole in the dark.
She would work in her dreams, always
picking threads of cotton.
I would find her in her chair, a soft snore,
the socks on her lap like sad tired children.
I would try not to disturb her, pulling a blanket up.
She would look at me with woolen eyes.
What do think you are doing? I am not done.
When she was in a casket like a knitting basket,
I expected her to scold me for coming home late,
for forgetting my skin was nightshades,
for gambling and consulting with shameful women,
for wearing toes through my socks
like I never seem to care how much it cost to get new ones.
When I saw her with a darning needle in her hand,
I burst into a carnal cry for the years spent wasted.
One of her grandchildren tugged me on the cuff,
Are you the one she loved as much as sewing?
I knew then a generation is held together by threads.





If You Ignore What Is Bothering You

(Based on the painting “The Artist’s Father” by Paul Cezanne)


There is distain in the wallpaper.
He is ignoring his own son by reading the news.
There is no mention of this in the paper.

His father adjusts his body towards available light.
He is searching the financial reasons for everything.
As the light moves, so do his shoulders.

He wears a fisherman’s knit hat.
He is lost in sea spray, the air caught in a net.
He has given hope his son would be found.

It is his son that paints this separation.
This is what happens when you base hope
on the hopeless: The news brings seaweed and death.





Sunflowers

(Based on the Van Gogh painting he made while waiting for Cezanne
to join him)


I want to decorate my room with color
from sunflowers that all I can imagine
sharing the arbitrary orange and yellow
I selected from the field of my imagination

placed them on a table
so it’s the first and last thing one sees
when entering or leaving in a hurry
to compel a person to slow down

enjoy the released yellow envelops
from a distance I have not opened

I want to express myself, but I dare not
less my enthusiasm overwhelm you   
and my words open as sunflowers

no one should see so much yellow, I think

so I hold back, afraid of having so much love
it makes your cheeks turn orange

so stay a while,
paint with me, let our painting sigh,
let the rooms be yellow mornings