DescriptionAnimal Virtue, a first collection of poetry by Nathanael Tagg, engages with curious as well as quotidian realities—all related to themes of art, place, and intimacy. Aware that humans are animals and that our relationship to nature is the great issue of our time, the book spotlights something like virtue exhibited by, or symbolized by, or learned from animals. Likewise, it exposes behavior that masquerades as virtue. Full of biblical allusions and references, it approaches the Bible as mythic literature evolving independent of dogma, and it helps rejuvenate the tradition of poetry that relates the Bible to contemporary experience.