What I Have I Offer with Two Hands: (Poiema Poetry)

Jacob Stratman's first collection of poems, What I Have I Offer with Two Hands, offers poems where the typically mundane and forgettable become windows to the divine. Whether the speaker of these poems is transfixed by Joseph Decker's Basket of Peaches, the hills and creeks of the Ozarks, the Eucharist, his son's Batman toys in the tub, or his own childhood, the focus never leaves his relationship with his sons and their relationship with God and the created world--what he hopes for them and what he hopes for all of us. With a loose connection to the liturgical calendar, readers will follow this father's meandering path through the year as he contemplates how to love, how to hope.

About the Author :
Jacob Stratman serves as professor of English and chair of the Humanities and Social Sciences Division at John Brown University in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, where he lives with his family. This is his first book of poems.

Review :
"In the quiet, agile poems in What I Have I Offer with Two Hands, Jacob Stratman reveals the rich connections to be found in being a parent and being a believer, the unique pain and joy in watching our children enter the world and become part of it. To be a parent is to have faith; to have faith is to give away what our hearts possess so fully. As his title aptly states, Stratman offers us what he has with two hands. He gives it all. Lucky us." --Carrie Fountain, author of I'm Not Missing "This father writes for his sons but allows us to peek into their lives, both holy and mundane: the five-year-old with ashes on his forehead beneath the Burger King crown; the dinner guest at some unholy meal who hears about hand-feeding a fire eel; the creche with a broken Joseph, waiting, as we all wait, to be fixed. These are poems filled with humor, pathos, and light, the father negotiating those tricky boundaries between the sacred and the every day. Such a father we all need. Such poetry fills in all of the empty spaces in one's spirit." --Jill Pel�ez Baumgaertner, author of What Cannot Be Fixed and Poetry Editor of The Christian Century "Stratman has a passion for great paintings, a liturgical sense of time, and an eye for endearing imperfections like skinned knees and spotted peaches. These poems are often humorous, always vivid, and unfailingly thoughtful. This is a good book to sit with in a quiet place." --Ben Myers, author of Black Sunday "What I Have I Offer with Two Hands is a needed collection that teaches as much as it entertains. These poems are not just love letters to the poet's sons, but love letters to the world, poems that are 'attentive / and attending, ' finding grace in life's laundry and the slow hours waiting for fish to bite or roller coasters to lurch. . . . Stratman's voice is one we need to tune our ears to before we go out into the world and love what God has gifted us." --Aaron Brown, author of Acacia Road "Jacob Stratman's first collection blooms at the intersection of art, faith, and family--the synthesis of a life fully and thoughtfully lived. . . . Stratman offers with two generous hands a guidebook to beauty, grace, and 'joy / in the mystery of the unknown, / the unknowable.' A wise and winsome debut." --Tania Runyan, Author of Second Sky