Martin Willitts Jr

When Stillness Is Heard

There was nothing there when I heard a voice.
Haven’t you had a strangeness like this?
I did not respond right away, ignoring it,
and its restlessness increased.
I chucked it off as imagination.
Haven’t you ignored queasy feelings?
Perhaps it was from the empty fields,
but there was stillness in the grass and air.
This uneasiness followed me into the car
and went with me.
When stillness is so quiet, nothing is heard.
There was nothing in my house.
Nothing in the sky. Nothing in the isolated miles.
The voice persisted.
Ever ignore something that refused to be ignored?
It was telling me to enjoy and love.
The message was everywhere it needed to be.
All I had to do was listen —- then it was everywhere.

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Martin Willitts Jr was nominated for two Best of The Net awards and his 5th Pushcart award. He has new chapbooks: “The Girl Who Sang Forth Horses” (Pudding House Publications, 2010), “Van Gogh’s Sunflowers for Cezanne” (Finishing Line Press, 2010), “True Simplicity” (Poets Wear Prada Press, 2011), “My Heart Is Seven Wild Swans Lifting” (Slow Trains, 2011), “Why Women Are A Ribbon Around A Bomb” (Last Automat, 2011), and “Art Is Always an Impression of What an Artist Sees” (Muse Café, 2011).