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Praise for Serpent’s Tooth

In SERPENT’S TOOTH, «Sterling’s poems witness texture and digging into memory and imagination, something for everyone: to make us laugh and cry and ponder—a voice that loves sound, meaning, and wordplay. His poems vibrate off the page as expressions and discovery: dense and airy, fluid and structured…tender, vital, vivacious verse.»
—Tobey Kaplan: Poet, Educator, Author of Across the Great Divide: Selected Poems

Multifaceted, a jewel of a book set in carved out sections. Observant verse, a multiverse: part past, past potential — lines cast in Freedom’s river, twice. This is a poetry that bites deep. Sharp as a Serpent’s Tooth.
–Lorna Dee Cervantes: Poet, Author of Sueño: New Poems and Emplumada

Whether contemplating nature, calling out social inequities, or excavating complicated memories, in Serpent’s Tooth Sterling Warner’s love for the English language is on display. Chameleon-like, he seems comfortable with almost any subject, in almost any poetic form. This new collection is a treasure trove of tonal variety, wit, and rumination. As the old maps used to say about uncharted territories, here be dragons!
–David Denny, author of Some Divine Commotion and Fool in the Attic

An engaging storyteller, Sterling Warner takes us on a magic carpet ride with King Lear and Ella Fitzgerald through memory, hope, and emotion. Whether reflecting on Covid-19 or smokes behind the house, observing a sunrise or rapid transit traffic, Warner is a wordsmith whose love of language sparks whatever he touches.
–Chella Courington: Writer, Educator, Author of Adele and Tom: The Portrait of a Marriage and In Their Own Way

Serpent’s Tooth invites the reader into an energetic universe where King Lear, Gilgamesh, Ēostre, Apollo and Bob Dylan rub shoulders with fireflies, the ever-present albatross, skunks and the poet’s grandma, all populating a place where the past is as alive as the future and every corner of every hick town is as gloriously alluring as Notre Dame Cathedral. Everyone is welcome here–in sorrow, loss, and exuberant joy, you will be glad you entered Sterling Warner’s world of «Words, Words, Words.»
–Rose Anna Higashi: English Professor, Poet, Blogger, author of Finding the Poet (mybestpoetry.com), Blue Wings and «Tea and Travels» (myteaplanner.com)

This is a wide-ranging and generous book of gifts. Warner is a talented storyteller full of wonder, wisdom, praise, and love.
–Lee Herrick: Poet, Educator, Author of Scar and Flower and Gardening Secrets of the Dead

Sample Poems

Spontaneity: Chasing Crazy

Dancing the tango down main street
grabbing complete stranger’s hands
leading partners chest-to-chest, alternating
upper thigh & hips proactively, like a sailor
on leave, steppin’ out, swaying like Dean Martin
taking small steps three sheets to the wind.

Skipping smooth, flat stones across shallow koi ponds,
	 	ripples roll like miniature arching waves
crashing into rooted water plants along the shoreline; 
sitting for hours at railway junctions watching trains
waiting for the streamlined Denver Zephyr, observing only
two level louvered stock cars transporting pigs & cattle.

Gamboling though downpours without umbrella,
kicking colorful oil rings resting on puddles,
ducking inside an all-night FM radio station
at the edge of town, announcing call letters before
introducing an uninterrupted hour of Pink Floyd classics
	returning to deserted sidewalks, owning them till dawn.


Giselle & Albrecht Reborn

Liberated from lockdowns, self-doubt’s 
shackles, caution’s curiosity, psychic’s 
premonitions, & certainty’s restrictions, 
we crawled through pussy willows on
our bellies, indirectly snaking our way 
in serpentine fashion to the Bolshoi river.   

Damp, nitrogen-rich soil smelled of 
decomposing vegetation, a holy fragrance  
that permeated the enchanted embankment
like invisible, ghostly incense—yet stimulated
our soft muscles, once puffy as under-eye bags,
precipitously taunt, firm, toned, pumped, primed.

Nature transformed my love into a prima ballerina 
in street clothes & PF Flyers— Margot Fonteyn
to my flamboyant Rudolf Nureyev maneuvers—
after I spread my legs, began to jump, performed 
double tours, cabrioles, & attitude turns, she 
effortlessly countered with picturesque pirouettes.

Along the waterfront, our two free souls defied gravity
& gravitas alike, no longer searching for a quayside,
we just relished the woodland Royal Ballet; uplifted by  
auspicious, enigmatic dance steps, an impromptu 
tour de force—light, airy, elegant, & buoyant—we
froze time’s trepidation amid moments of endless levity. 
© Sterling Warner

Paperback Only

Author Biography

Author of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry, Sterling Warner has several publications. His recent ones include: Visions Across the Americas (8^th edition © 2013), and Anthology of World Literature [Until the 17^th Century] (6^th edition © 2017). 

Warner’s poetry and fiction have appeared in many international literary magazines, journals, and anthologies such as Verse Virtual, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Ekphrastic Review, Poetry Life and Times, The Fib Review, and MasticadoresUSA.

Warner also has written several volumes of poetry. His most recent ones include Flytraps: Poems (Independent Press © 2022), Cracks of Light: Pandemic Poems & Fiction 2019-2022 (Annas Bay Books 2022), Halcyon Days: Collected Fibonacci (Annas Bay Books © 2023), Abraxas: Poems (Kelsay Books © 2024), Gunilla’s Garden (Annas Bay Books © 2025)—as well as Masques: Flash Fiction &. Short Stories (Independent Press © 2020). 

A Jim Herndon Award recipient (2013), a Pushcart Award nominee (2014, 2020, 2021), and a Hayward Award winner (2000), Warner was named the Atherton Poet Laureate in 2014. Warner formerly taught in the English Department at Evergreen Valley College, where he served as the Creative Writing Program Director, EVC Author’s Series Organizer, and Leaf by Leaf literary magazine Chief Editor.