Where the Warehouse Things Are

I’m not good with tools; my wife was the one who carried the hammer around the house. But as I was reading this I found myself reviewing what little tools I’ve known and pleasantly discovering that I knew more than I thought. Reading Tony Robles’ collection Where the Warehouse Things Are reintroduced me to a world the comfortable had abandoned, yet see stark beauty in it. And it is partly that discomfort that edges and sharpens the poet’s eye in Tony Robles’ collection of poetry. It will sharpen yours, too.

—Oscar Penaranda, Author of Follower of the Seasons

I loved this collection. A true people’s poet, Robles invites us into the world of a warehouse worker whose greatest tool is the written word. The warehouse is filled with jazz, cats, ghosts, stars and calluses and dreams, and as Robles does the manual labor of assembling wheelchairs and beds and canes he also performs the philosophical labor of assembling the beauty and dignity of everyday lives. Full of playfulness and puns as well as stunning moments of reflection, Where the Warehouse Things Are is an instant classic you’ll want to to read again and again.

—Jen Soriano, author of NERVOUS: Essays on Heritage and Healing

About the Author

Tony Robles is the author of the poetry collections Cool Don’t Live Here No More—A Letter to San Francisco, Fingerprints of a Hunger Strike, and Thrift Store Metamorphosis. He was named the Carl Sandburg Writer in Residence by the Friends of Carl Sandburg in Flat Rock, NC, in 2020. He was short list nominated for Poet Laureate of San Francisco in 2017. His poetry, short stories, and essays have appeared in numerous publications. He earned his MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2023 and is currently a professor of creative writing in the MFA graduate program at Lenoir Rhyne University in North Carolina.