Viewing nature as a spiritual discipline requires focus, quiet intention, listening for the smallest noises, and watching how change happens.
This collection of poems is also shaped by the techniques of Impressionism – light and shadow, the momentary, how no two moments are the same, and where light is forever chasing light. Let these poems guide you as you enter the world. Let them slow you down and focus your attention.
Leave Nothing Behind is a beautiful, powerful, and important collection centering on reflection and listening. This book is a valuable holistic lesson that everyone should read. —Dr. Anthony J. Nocella II, editor of Peace Studies Journal
Willitts applies brush stroke after brush stroke with each poem, referring to impressionist paintings and scientific names of birds and flora throughout to usher his reader into a garden filled with the wild and domestic, where time is suspended and we can experience layers of life – temporal and eternal, earthly and spiritual, the possible and the impossible – unveiling before us. We become part of the whole symphony and canvas. Nothing is truly left behind. —Kimberly Ann Priest, author of Slaughter the One Bird
Martin Willitts Jr.
is a retired librarian in Syracuse, New York. Winner of the 2014 Dylan Thomas International Poetry Contest; Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Prize, 2018; Editor’s Choice, Rattle Ekphrastic Challenge, December 2020; 17th Annual Sejong Writing Competition, 2022. His over twenty full-length collections of poetry include Ethereal Flowers (Still Point Press, 2023) and Rain Followed Me Home (Glass Lyre Press, 2023).