I know, National Poetry Month officially closed yesterday on April 30th, but it felt weird ending the celebration so close to the end of the week, so I’m adding two more poets as a bonus. Martin Settle is another poet I’ve known for many years and have enjoyed both his poetry and his prose. I use his book of haiku as a tutorial on how to write them. Jane Hicks is the one poet from this year’s featured poets I’ve not actually met! She attends the Table Rock Writers Workshop, but we’ve never sat and chatted. I’m starting with her today with a confession …
As I mention above, I’d not met Jane or heard her poetry; I bought Jane’s book because I loved the cover and the title, The Safety of Small Things. It was the right thing to do. Small things include a wide range in Hick’s poetry from actual small items like those found in ‘Remnants of a Saving Life … a pewter cup …cast-iron skillet …shears/filled all the functions/my grandmother’s hefty all-purpose/trimming tools.’ to small notes about big things while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for breast cancer. The poet treats all small things with the same importance.
As the beautiful cover illustrates, symbiosis is a thread through these poems. It’s found in the dance of the eclipse, watching the sun’s disappearance with her sister cancer patients. Science becomes art as Jane writes of her own personal Abscission, the beast of winter, and Ode on an Onion. Whether writing of hard subjects like PTSD or joyful memories like the first morning of elementary school, Hicks grounds the reader in tangible items–big and small–that we can hold on to.
The final stanza of the title poem reminds us to be aware of those moments and objects that could slip by without our notice. ‘Here, a night nest, warm wallow/in the tall grass that edges the brush pile–/a deliberate thicket composed for the safety/of small things/Tunnels and trails/marked by tufts of hair and feathers/lead to an unseen world that flourishes/while I sleep.’
Maple Samaras is Martin Settles latest book of poetry. It’s a short book, only 29 pages but reading it is like a long walk through an abundant wood. Samaras are the little twirly seeds of the maple tree, and it’s that attention to detail that Martin brings to all these poems, taking one specific detail of each tree and creating a story. Many tree species becoming a character. He’s our field guide introducing us to the Bald Cyprus ‘… a voodoo woman/scarved in Spanish moss …’; the mulberry ‘… a mom/with many hands/hands in mitts to make/her children’s breakfast …’; and many inhabitants of the forest known by their Outer Bark – ‘… a man with hackberry skin/covered in warts …’
All the while, the poet also weaves in his own stories and obvious love of trees: the elms of his youth, the apple for pies and cider, and the color of a wife’s cheeks, the tree of heaven–an invasive tree getting in the way of childhood back alley playing. Settle has a way of exploring the science of trees and making the information poetic and entertaining. After reading Maple Samaras, you’ll not walk through the wood without looking at the trees differently.
You can find Jane’s The Safety of Small Things at Fireside Industries
You can find Martin’s Maple Samaras at Wild Leek Press
Well, that’s a wrap for National Poetry Month 2026! I hope some of these poets and their work piqued your interest and enticed you to explore poetry a bit more.
While I’m still immersed in all things poetry–judging Kakalak poems and art submissions are well underway, and the collection with my Poet Sisters is in its next phase–Monday at my window will not be about poetry. I hope you’ll stop by. Until then, may you have a wonderful weekend!
A Writer's Window 