Sometimes, it is Necessary to Pull Back by Martin Willitts Jr.

Sometimes, it is necessary to pull back

into ourselves like receding tidal waves

to find silence, settling into ourselves,

tension easing outwards, a rippling sunset

on water surface, to feel the air soften

its quiet brushstrokes.

I am sitting on a pier, looking at a lake

where the wind is not disturbing anyone.

The breeze is hardly present, but felt —

a baby’s sleeping breath.

Across the way, by the shore,

trees are still. No birds flush among them.

The sun merges with the lake, slowly,

a descent of footsteps on carpeting of leaves.

We think we know what’s important,

but we barely get past the surface.

We have so much more to learn.

Already, time is edging away.

Martin Willitts Jr has 20 chapbooks including the winner of the Turtle Island Quarterly Editor’s Choice Award, “The Wire Fence Holding Back the World” (Flowstone Press, 2017), plus 11 full-length collections including forthcoming full-lengths includes “The Uncertain Lover” (Dos Madres Press, 2018), and “Home Coming Celebration” (FutureCycle Press, 2019).