Seaboard Magic

Sterling Warner's collection Seaboard Magic is a rollercoaster of language and the magic of images and words: Warner takes us on a cornucopia of metaphor and alliteration, from nature's idiosyncrasies to the surreal, from "navy blue waters" and "remains of kelp forests torn" to dreamscapes, spiritual magic, flights of fancy. He lets "faerie wings [...] spread enchanted dust," he "surfs on airstreams." From the bottom of the sea to the forest floor, to lust, tattoos, road rage, to "loneliness in a room full of hungry people," Warner goes everywhere. He releases "Grandpa's ashes atop the incoming tide" and leaves us smiling at Grandma's reading material. Over a hundred pages of imagination and craft, a very satisfying ride indeed.

-Rose Mary Boehm, author, eight poetry collections and one chapbook

Sterling Warner's Seaboard Magic: Poems overflows with poetic delights and ever-present music. Classic and innovative poetic forms abound. He kicks off the collection with "Diving" where alliteration thrives: "we jump head-first into an icy fray, flutter kicking / scuba fins, jostling with kelp forests and rockfish," then effectively blends Haiku and western verse in "Miranda's Quest": "tides ebbing, flowing / shimmering beauty shrouded / beneath sandcastles," and adroitly structures Fibonacci poems like "Camellia's Chemo." In "Tempus Fugit," Warner shows mastery of the Cadralor wherein imagery's paramount: "nude volleyball players bounce / free from restriction ... I long to cuddle both day / and night by flames and ashes," distinguishes "Filbert Brushstrokes" with astonishing similes: "Like dirty rain on unwashed cars our long unlikely / relationship blossomed," and deftly melds together more than two dozen literary references in "Old Gods Almost Dead!" like a poetic compendium. Overall, Seaboard Magic offers a spectacular collection which reads as powerfully as hearing Sterling live!

-Billy Brown, poet, Fixed & Free and host/editor/publisher, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Haunting, mysterious, yet loving, the poems in Seaboard Magic take readers on a journey aboard Sterling Warner's poetic mind. From carefully chosen words he captures sounds and picturesque images amid gifted phrasings as he celebrates both common and unusual experiences. Whether watching "heavenly halos / merge grief and tranquility," as his grandpa's ashes mingle in the sea's current, musing on "brain fog," "obsidian wit," or "taking wing towards a horizon" of new adventures, Warner delights readers as he examines timeless topics from a refreshing perspective. A must read!

-Joshua Meander, publisher, Nomad's Choir Poetry Journal