{"id":3465,"date":"2022-09-26T09:32:45","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T13:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/?p=3465"},"modified":"2022-09-27T09:17:38","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T13:17:38","slug":"exploring-the-metaphorist-with-martin-settle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/blog\/2022\/09\/26\/exploring-the-metaphorist-with-martin-settle\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring The Metaphorist with Martin Settle"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Regular readers of my Storied Charlotte blog might remember last year\u2019s post about Martin (Marty) Settle and his memoir titled Teaching During the Jurassic:  Wit and Wisdom from an Old Hippie Teacher.  <\/em>Well, Marty has a new collection of poetry that Finishing Line Press just released.  Titled The Metaphorist, <\/em>this collection looks at nature through a metaphorical lens.  For more information about this collection, please click on the following link:  https:\/\/www.finishinglinepress.com\/product\/the-metaphorest-by-martin-settle\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I contacted Marty and asked him how he came to write the poems in The Metaphorist.  <\/em>I also asked him if he would be willing to share one of the poems from this collection, which he generously agreed to do.  Here is what he sent to me:<\/p>\n\n\n

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This book of poetry comes, first of all, from my unending love of plants and animals. Over the years, I have become quite familiar with the flora, fauna, and fungi of our region. But these poems are not just any nature poems, but nature poems that are in line with current, ecological discoveries and philosophies. The themes of <\/em>The Metaphorest fit into many of the new words and terms that are becoming salient in these times \u2013 Symbiocene, Wood Wide Web, Anthropocene, Grammar of Animacy, Mutualism, and Mycorrhizal Networks. My title is a neologism to add to this list of terms; <\/em>metaphorest is a synthesis of <\/em>metaphor and <\/em>forest. The poems in this collection find delight not only in the existence of so many creatures but the metaphorical language that they provide us with. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you know my writing roots are in Charlotte. Working at UNC Charlotte has provided me with many writing mentors \u2013 Robin Hemley, Robert Grey, Lucinda Grey, and Chris Davis.  In addition, Irene Blaire Honeycutt over the years with Sensoria has provided me with inspirational poets and workshops. Currently, Charlotte Lit has been a source of readers, workshops, and courses, from which I always come away renewed in my writing.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to sharing one of the poems, how about this poem from the South.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pokeweed in the South<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

in its early stages<\/em>
pokeweed rises with<\/em>
hands humble in prayer<\/em>
as plentiful in spring<\/em>
as a crop of Christians<\/em>
at Easter service<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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then it can be cut<\/em>
baptized in boiling water<\/em>
and brought to the table<\/em>
a poor man\u2019s spinach<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the ritual can be repeated<\/em>
the pokeweed does not die<\/em>
a horizontal tuber<\/em>
buried in the ground<\/em>
continues to send up shoots<\/em>
an immortal that has saved<\/em>
many from starvation<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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maturity is the problem<\/em>
the crimson stems<\/em>
grow as high as a human<\/em>
and maiden hair racemes\u00a0<\/em>
hang down with purple-black berries<\/em>
that attract like a woman\u2019s nipples\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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desire comes in seeing the pleasure<\/em>
of birds feeding\u00a0<\/em>
and flying off with berries \u2013\u00a0<\/em>
mockingbirds, cardinals, catbirds<\/em>
eat and sing poke\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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but humans cannot<\/em>
even grasp a stalk<\/em>
without tainting their blood<\/em>
to eat would be death<\/em>
the only immortality in these juices<\/em>
is to write with their ink<\/em>
or dye with their stain<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I appreciate Marty\u2019s willingness to share his pokeweed poem with the readers of my blog.  There are several pokeweeds growing in my backyard, so I am familiar with this plant.  However, after reading Marty\u2019s poem, I now look at pokeweeds in a whole new way.  Through his poetry, Marty helps us transcend our familiar world and celebrate with him the metaphorical wonders that he associates with the natural world. I congratulate Marty on the publication of The Metaphorist, <\/em>and I thank him for his insightful and original contribution to Storied Charlotte\u2019s poetry library.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Regular readers of my Storied Charlotte blog might remember last year\u2019s post about Martin (Marty) Settle and his memoir titled Teaching During the Jurassic:  Wit and Wisdom from an Old Hippie Teacher.  Well, Marty has a new collection of poetry that Finishing Line Press just released.  Titled The Metaphorist, this collection looks at nature through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[257,35],"class_list":["post-3465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-storied-charlotte","tag-nature","tag-poetry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3465"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3485,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3465\/revisions\/3485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/mark-west\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}