The Shell of Things

Whether he's attending to a chestnut tree or watching his child play god to a box full of Lego body parts, Jacob Stratman invites readers to walk with him through observations about nature, parenting, aging, memory, and faith. "No one discovers truth; it is revealed," Stratman declares in a poem for his son's 13th birthday-then adds, "Though nothing's revealed without kicking first?" In the shell of things, some poems record the kicking, but many poems do the kicking, and the whole book is a revelation.

-Katie Manning, editor-in-chief of Whale Road Review, author of Hereverent and Tasty Other

the shell of things, Jacob Stratman's startling new collection, opens up a life ordinary and a life less ordinary to the possibility of something other. Reading it, at times it feels like I'm prying. Poems about soccer, children, their teenage crushes, church soup kitchens, sit cheek-to-cheek with close observations on death-loved ones, plants, roadkill-and the dislocation of a life abroad. It is a collection where each poem-the poet perhaps, too-is vigilant, attentive, seeking understanding, aware that somewhere lies a richness and hope. It is one inviting us, perhaps on our knees, to look closer and deeper. But ultimately it asks us not to dwell in the details we might find, instead asking us to examine that which prevents us accepting the grace we uncover.

-Ben Egerton, author of The Seed Drill

Here are poems rich with metaphors taken from the natural world: buzzards mistaken (like hope) for pileated woodpeckers, "dogwoods and redbuds losing their celebrity" as spring deepens into summer, a little fish hooked so firmly it is ripped to its death. These are strong and sturdy poems, but the highlight of this collection is the stunning, lyrical sequence which describes the author's residency in Korea where "he can only see the shell of things" as he lives in a new land and language, requiring acts of creation provoked by an unfamiliar setting as he finds his footing and searches for the words to describe what he observes.

-Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, author of From Shade to Shine, poetry editor of The Christian Century