In reply to two recent publications about Deliberate Metaphor Theory (DMT) in this journal, the author asserts that DMT advances metaphor research into a period with novel and exciting research challenges and possibilities for application between various disciplines. The author first spells out his basic suppositions about eleven central concepts in all verbal metaphor inquiry. Then he proposes the chief tenets of DMT about the difference between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphor. Finally, he briefly debates which urgent matters still need to be dealt with.