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Martin Willitts Jr won the 2012 William K. Hathaway Award , co-winner of the 2013 Bill Holm Witness Poetry Contest, winner of the 2013 Broadsided award. He has 5 full-length collections including national contest winner, "Searching For What Is Not There" (Hiraeth Press, 2013) and 20 chapbooks including national winner "William Blake, Not Blessed Angel But Restless Man" (Red Ochre Press, 2014).
Reviewed by Michelle Robertson for Readers' Favorite
Art Is Always an Impression of What an Artist Sees: Poetry by Martin Willitts Jr is a collection of story-telling poems which introduce readers to the Impressionist era of Ekphrastic poetry that started with Edouard Manet. The author shares with readers descriptive and enticing stories as he depicts a painting with the use of poetry, thus explaining the artists' reasons for painting, their motivation, pure emotion, thought processes, and how it affects not only the artists themselves, but everything and everyone around it.
The author is not only interpreting the meaning of a painting with a simple poem of opinion, but is introducing readers into true events and happenings of the Impressionist era. The author invites readers to explore many different aspects of the Impressionist era and Ekphrastic poetry, not only by the written loveliness of passion, love, and inspiration but also with eroticism and desire. Much of this collection uses figurative wording and analogies. The author beautifully blends many persons' perspectives on a certain painting to create one poem. Not to state directly an opinion, but rather leave the reader to ponder on what was meant to be a suggestion.
This collection of poetry is one of the most intriguing I have read, studied, and enjoyed. A reader not familiar with the Impressionist era, or the form of Ekphrastic poetry may have difficulties comprehending this collection.
