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Friend is an assemblage of poems for pilgrims, for those who walk and work in the world but know that their sojourn has origins and destinations beyond the stories of who we think we are. A friend on this journey is a fellow traveller—sometimes seen, sometimes not.  Ultimately, the friend is the teacher we come to know as our self. 

This little book of lyric reflections is offered in friendship, and hopes to be an obliging companion.

From a small, round stone in a seeker’s hand to the earth of which we form a part, these poems are a trusted guide through the complex and complicated web that ties humans to the planet, the animals, and to one another.
      —Michelle Otero, author of Malinche's Daughter

[In this new collection of 92 poems written in the first half of 2011] earth, wind, fire and water are Stewart Warren’s muses.  Each image has for its ground of being, one of these elements and each one makes his poems sing.  Likewise, many of his poems are grounded in a kind of spiritual renaissance: whether or not he’s speaking of loss, of blood, of guilt, of love, or trees, rivers and ghosts, in Stewart’s hard-earned southwest rhythms, they not only continue to sing, “they will just keep circling”.

There are some beautiful, tough, big-spirited things going on in this book.  In his landscapes, the echoes often return, and when they do, there is something to be learned and shared.
      —John Macker, poet, author of Underground Sky and Woman of the Disturbed Earth 

Stewart Warren is a poet in the Sufi tradition.  Joy, celebration, and gratitude is at the center of these poems.
      —Wendy Videlock, author of Nevertheless

Stewart Warren’s writing evokes the mesmerizing landscape in which he lives, the aliveness of its present, the mystery of its past, the seen and the unseen. With unequivocal honesty his words birth stirring and sensuous images, calling for our humanity and deepest compassion. This latest collection of poetry is deeply visceral, stirs the blood, enlivens the skin and provokes the mind…
      —Cindy Novelo, Musician and Songwriter


Stewart Warren’s latest collection illuminates how to love life in the schism between gratitude and death, between assault and sanctuary, in that place where forgiveness can level churches and yet “soft halleluiahs” are accomplished before we even do anything.

Fierce. Beautiful. Quietly wise. Even as “one storm follows another,” receptivity and openness are invoked. And this calling, to the reader, to the human, to the author himself, is why this work rings profound, why I am grateful for the opportunity to witness—and even feel part of—“…the procession/ of oxygen and wheat and wildebeest.// Of the miracle of just one leaf.”
      —Lisa Gill, author of The Relenting

In The Sea Always Near, Warren’s poems float above the mesas of Northern New Mexico while also sinking themselves into the problems, and beauty, of the whole planet—from China and Japan back to Cerro Pedernal in New Mexico then to the red dirt and Osage Hills of Oklahoma.

Warren is the astronomer of not only the night sky, but also of the quiet reaches and reflected starlight of the New Mexican landscape.  He reminds us we are Star Stuff.  But he’s also a Paleontologist, with a sharp eye on the bones and ancient splendors of the world.

These wonderful poems in which “…grace has turned every corner…” and “[t]he whiteness of the page / goes on forever” speak to us in needed ways that so much contemporary poetry does not. 
      —Nathan L. Brown, author of Two Tables Over, winner of the 2009 Oklahoma Book Award for Poetry

I became an instant fan of Stewart Warren when we crossed paths at the glorious Sparrows Festivals in Salida, Colorado. Not just the poems but the guy himself. Stewart is the archetypal boy-next-door - that is of course if you happen to live in the Southwest and your neighborhood is notable for fine writers and talented artists. I love his friendliness, his willingness to build community wherever he settles, and the way he charms good poetry out of those of us who write with him (great workshops!) He sets the bar higher then lends us all a step up. Needless to say, this newest collection is a must read.
      —Dale Harris, Malpais Review poetry editor, and founder of the Poets and Writers Picnic / Sunflower Writers Workshops

Essence is a well-named book.  It invites the reader/viewer to address the very essence of the human condition through striking yet subtle and provocative photos and poetry in conversation with each other.  Author and pastor, Eugene Peterson,  said that a poet’s work is always a conversation that is saying something in relationship.  This book is such a dialogue. Stoeffl and Warren’s work is meditative in itself and is a valuable instrument for reflection and journaling.  Each one of Stoeffl’s photos is worth at least the proverbial 1000 words and Warren’s two to three stanza poems are as simple as they are profound, direct without being directive.

 —Ron Wooten-Green, Las Vegas, New Mexico
When the Dying Speak (Loyola Press); A Fine Line of Distinction (PublishAmerica);
Journaling Through Life (in progress)

—Eddie Soloway, Santa Fe, New Mexico
One Thousand Moons (Nahmakanta Press, Santa Fe); Big Sur (DVD www.eddiesoloway.com)

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer - www.wordwoman.com
Poet Laureate, San Miguel County, CO
Intimate Landscape: The Four Corners in Poetry and Photography

In this substantial collection, Stewart Warren proves himself to be a traveling poet of northern New Mexico, not a tourist but a pilgrim who returns again and again to people, place, and land. The setting can be as charged as the Santuario de Chimayo or as intimate as an old car.

But this world is animate—the frost acts like a lively bride and a collapsing house still offers shelter. There are pure lyrics here, and tiny anecdotal prose pieces reminiscent of Jim Sagel. To read these poems is to fall in love again with language and northern New Mexico.
      —Miriam Sagan, author of MAP OF THE LOST (UNM Press)

Reading Stewart Warren’s new book, The Song of It, I suddenly realized how thirsty I have been! I was indeed in the presence of poetry, magnificent poetry (and prose) that comes out of the wild heart of the world—a world which we can only enter as lovers, and with “our hats in our hands,” a world that curls itself around us, but that we rarely see. Those moments when you do wake to it, Warren assures us, “You are standing/in the center of time/and everything you touch/will take you home.”
      —James Tipton, author of Letters from a Stranger and All the Horses of Heaven

The Weight of Dusk is a lyrical journey of discovery, love, innocence lost, wisdom glimpsed and wisdom gained in fitful starts and reverses.  These narrative poems may focus on the life of one man and its ordinary triumphs and tragedies, but in them Warren shows how large and universal “one small life” can be.  When you read these poems, you may well find your own life in them, looking back at you.
      —Michael Adams, Award winning poet, author of Broken Hand and Steel Valley; member of The Free Radical Railroad

From the first poem to the last little phrase, "The miracle, of course, is that we are here," we are in the good company of poems that are milagros indeed, enviro-personal, and heart-thrown. This work is new to me and welcome aboard my psyche, and, I trust, yours as well.
      —Joan Logghe, author, editor, activist, and Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, New Mexico

"Poetry with intelligence, hard-won wisdom, humor and humanity. Stewart S. Warren's long awaited collection is an invitation to see ourselves 'in the shiny mud,' to lean into one another, to get down on our knees and to enter the house of experience."
      —Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, author of If You Listen and Insatiable

"Warren is a writer who sees deep into the heart of this world, a writer whose voice bounces off canyon walls and travels along rivers to their desert ends.  One can be sure that the echo of this poet's voice will always come back to the reader with clear, authentic and beautiful tones. It would seem that any moment or encounter is reason enough for Warren to take pen to paper and write heartfelt poems that linger with a reader the way all good art should.

Early in this collection Warren writes 'Everything has become an instrument.'  Perhaps there is no better description of these poems, these poems which echo through mountain ranges, New Mexican villages, the many colored skins of the earth and into flight with birds and then settle so nicely back down to earth with her people and their history.  Warren is a lover of all that the earth contains or lets go and these poems reflect that love."
      —Aaron A. Abeyta, author of Colcha and As Orion Falls 

Eloquent, genuine, evocative of place and community—such are the voices in this collection. Open the cover and you push from the bank, moving with the river's shifting current of poetry, essays, stories, ripples of Spanish overlapping English. Listen for Coyote, pass below polished volcanic cliff rock, and smell the spiced wind off the mesas. Let the songs here sing to you of life lived in appreciation of the unique place that is the Upper Rio Grande.
      —Chris Ransick, Denver Poet Laureate, and author of Lost Songs and Last Chances

The anthology project, conceived by Maria Morales McConnell of Del Norte, Colorado and edited by Arthur O. Washburn and Stewart S. Warren, is a living document and a deed to the land belonging to those bold enough to live their stories and share them straight.

Included here are poems, essays and flash fiction written by people spanning eighty years in age, over two thousand miles in distance, and a multitude of cultural and class differences, but having one central experience in common—a desire to walk to the river and find other like-hearted human beings gathered there.  This collection, then, is for people who read with their whole body and mind.