Description: Unfolding Toward Love is a collection of spiritual poetry about the presence of God as well as God's hidden presence and God's voice speaking within us if we are willing to listen. Part meditation, lamentation, and acceptance, these poems search for God and find him in every object offering a welcoming. Sometimes, we do not listen; sometimes, we hear and do not obey or we question what we hear. However, if we listen, the hiddenness of God is seen, felt, and overwhelming. Sometimes, we do not know God has moved within us because it is so subtle, and then, all of a sudden, we realize what has transpired and we are amazed that we never noticed it before. These poems are in the tradition of the ecstatic poets with their questions: What is faith, and what is faithfulness? What is God telling us? Does the message unfold like rose petals, or does it spiral outwards like Fibonacci's logarithmic spiral inside a conch shell? We question, is this God's message, or is it from ego or some other place? We try to discern what God is telling us. We do not want to misunderstand.
Brief description: Martin Willitts Jr. is a nationally and internationally published poet with twenty chapbooks including national award winner The Wire Fence Holding Back the World (2016), plus eighteen full-length collections, including National Ecological Award winner Searching for What You Cannot See (2013). Other awards include the 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Contest; Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, Editor's Choice, June 2015; Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, Artist's Choice, November 2016; Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize, 2018.
Review Quotes: "Martin Willitts Jr. writes: 'I opened a book / a stream of birds flew out.' Trees listen when the poet speaks; we should listen to Martin Willitts Jr.--a spiritual poet extraordinaire, a poet of wisdom, insight, and affection not to be taken lightly. This book, filled with poetic gems inspired by gardens, art, deeply personal faith, and family life, is poetry for our times of strife, hate, and poison. This is an antidote pill for toxic clouds of darkness that threaten to overwhelm us. Instead, we should breathe in the 'invisible presence' and take this 'careless love careening in our hearts' in daily doses of brightness. Highly recommended."
--Maja Trochimczyk, author of Into Light, President, California State Poetry Society