The Metaphorest by Martin Settle

The Metaphorest is Martin Settle’s metaphorical journey into a forest dense with mythical allusions yet grounded in the clarity of his allegorical voice. Moss, he says, is “an unreliable compass,” but has enough moisture to sustain parched lips on stones. Pokeweed’s purple-black berries, enticing as a woman’s ripe nipples, can prove fatal to humans. Each poem becomes a magical steppingstone into the intricacies of forest growth and the complexities of being human. What better metaphor than a paper wasp in decline suggesting our own fading into old age. Or the birds of autumn that leave us wondering: “What kind of reserves do I have for the coming cold?” Settle’s poems, wise and enchanting, illuminate the necessity of the journey into the forest to explore our full humanity.

–Irene Blair Honeycutt, an award-winning poet and teacher, founder of CPCC’s Sensoria, and author of Beneath The Bamboo Sky (Main Street Rag 2017)

The title of this collection is a pun, “metaphorest” translating both as metaphor-maker and meta-forest, “meta” meaning beyond or among the forest. In the 16th century an herbal was a book that named and described the medicinal and culinary properties of plants. Part herbal, part bestiary, these nature poems engagingly explore the links between the natural world and the heart of the poet whose poems “cannot escape an animal creeping in or a seed from taking root.”  These poems bloom.

–Richard Taylor, former Kentucky Poet Laureate. Has completed eight collections of poems, two novels, and three nonfiction works on Kentucky history

Don’t be misled by the titles listed herein. This is not a collection of nature poems. Rather, Settle masterfully displays plants, insects, birds, mammals, even the soil beneath our feet, in metaphorical wonder. He bares himself, and the reader, as he personifies nature and reveals the synthesis of life—from the transient firefly to the abiding, ancient oak. The title poem concludes the collection—as climax, denouement, and prologue—enticing us to read this narrative many times over to fully absorb the nuances.

— Anne M. Kaylor, Author, Unwilling to Laugh Alone and Floating a Full Boat, Editor and Publisher, Kakalak and moonShine review