Half the Sky

Joan Buchanan is a writing instructor and storyteller, and the author of
Taking Care of My Cold! and The Nana Rescue.

Meaty, rich, round—these are some of the adjectives evoked by Half the
Sky. Although some of these poems deal directly with pain and violence,
they nourish and give glimpses of feminine wisdom as well as suffering.
As a collection, the poems flow well and are held together by a strong
sense of narrative. There is much diversity of style: short lines, long
lines, and prose poems. Krause handles each style well, fitting line
length to the subject, cadence, and tone of the poem.

I appreciated the haunting quality of nature in “Misjudging the
Distance”: “close call, close call / the crows remind us, their dark
wings spreading / over the patient earth.” Also appealing is the
earthy imagery in such lines as “When it was time to go, Lily had to
drag / her suitcase to the car, heavy / with roots and seeds she’d
grow / in rich red soil of home” (“Gardens of the North”).
Metaphors tend to build in Krause’s poems, resulting in a sense of
closure that moves beyond the poem.

Some poems exhibit a delightful sense of irony, as evidenced by the
loud swearing kids in “The Hillcrest Christian Youth Camp Bus Stops
for Lunch at Murray Point.” Other poems display tenderness and
healing, as in “After his operation, my daughter quietly strokes his
swollen hand, smoothing away the puffiness” (“Hands”). And while a
vulnerable feminine voice emerges from the darkest themes explored in
these poems (e.g., sexual and spousal assault), underlying it is a sense
of strength and survival. This beautifully produced book is a tremendous
bargain.