Martin Willitts Jr. has written both print chapbooks: Falling In and Out of Love by Pudding House Publications, 2005, and Lowering Nets of Light by Pudding House Publications, 2007, and online chapbooks: Farewell—the journey now begins, 2006, News from the Front, 2007, and Words & Paper, 2008. He has also written a full-length book, Secret Language of the Universe, from March Street Press, 2006, and edited a poetry anthology about cancer, Alternatives to Surrender, from Plain View Press, 2007.

Frieze-Like Composition

     by Martin Willitts Jr.

        based on Claude Monet’s painting, “The Ice Floes”

Winter has lasted longer than I remember.
The villages have hunkered down.
The river Seine is frozen solid.

Ice floes and granite ice chunks were clashing together.
There is a break in the chilled sun.
Despite the scale of winter, the land finds colors.

I plunged through the snow towards the river,
ice chunks breaking and displacing.
I was in search of the moment when light breaks through.

I wanted to paint this measure of things that are cycles,
I wanted to paint like a lover who cannot stop loving
never tiring of the same woman, always exploring.

© 2008 Martin Willitts Jr.