Mole: Poems

Like the mole of the title, Patrick Warner’s poems accomplish great feats while disguised as pleasingly modest creatures of accident and stealth. But whereas moles mine the soil, Mole mines the rich depths of imagination, empathy, and insight. A Newfoundlander, Warner takes the richness of his land’s distinctive argot and singular humor, crafting a strange, dreamlike world that sharpens our perception of this one. A moral poet, and one fully engaged with his people and home, Warner can be read both seriously and for pure enjoyment by anyone, anywhere. As with the best poets, he takes overlooked corners and negligible objects, turning them into prisms, portals, tuning forks, and flint rocks. What we thought was the case may well turn out to be otherwise. This is a collection that is bracing, pleasing, and thoroughly rewarding.