In Terry Tierney's second poetry collection, Why Trees Stay Outside, voices emerge from our social, political, and natural environment, including perspectives we thought were inanimate or at least insentient, some human, some spiritual. Through provocative imagery, they ask how we can save ourselves, find love, and find meaning given our current relationships with one another and the earth. The chorus of questions radiates with occasional remorse, but the poems also flash with redemption and humor. By exposing features of our physical and personal environments, their wealth of perspectives, and our innate desire to create and destroy, these accessible poems dare us to reconsider our assumptions and find a way forward.