Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems

With earnest, open-hearted attention through the wilderness of grocery lines, gardens, corners, and prayer, Taylor-Troutman’s Tigers, Mice & Strawberries invokes the lightness of small talk while it brings fresh delight to big questions of family, place, grief, and grace, inviting readers to consider how the little things in life maybe aren’t so little at all.

—Melissa A. Butler, author of How to Notice, in a button, and Atlas of Ordinary Things

It’s rare that poetry this heartfelt is also so substantial, managing both to inspire a smile of deep recognition, empathy for the suffering, and a gentle assurance that there is indeed light just a little further ahead. I’m grateful for Andrew Taylor-Troutman as a poet, essayist, and human being. And I’m confident that diving into this book will be a gift to you too.

—Gareth Higgins, author of How Not to be Afraid and founder, The Porch Community.

Andrew Taylor-Troutman uses a poetics of love to elevate his observations of God’s creation. The reader is welcomed in with a warmth rare in contemporary poetry. Taylor-Troutman’s subject matter is what he sees and knows. We gain insight into the work and mind of a minister. Taylor-Troutman writes with bemusement and compassion about his three children. Grace, which shapes the poet’s life, also describes his poetic craft. He deploys rhyme to delightful effect and frequently writes in form. Tigers, Mice & Strawberries is an offering of love. In Taylor-Troutman’s words, “And still we make more space, / fill the walkways of our hearts, / the way we do love, the way we do art.”

—Joan Barasovska, author of Orange Tulips, Carrying Clare, Birthing Age