The Uncertain Lover

Poetry. In THE UNCERTAIN LOVER, Martin Willitts, Jr. presents love in all of its richness and flavor from the wistful yet resolute title poem to his remarkable poems that inhabit the art, mind, and soul of the passionate painter Frida Kahlo where she 'hold[s] [her husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera] in [her] forehead like a third eye, / like a gypsy's curse.' Willitts's depiction of love goes beyond romantic and sexual love to familial love and love for humanity and nature, especially in 'The Ancestry of Maize' and 'Speaking the Language of Deer.' This symphony of loves builds to the crescendo of 'A Love Supreme, ' the poet's tribute to jazz giant John Coltrane, a poem that blends incantation and insight to transport the reader beyond music and biography to the meaning of Coltrane's phrase.--Marianne Szly