Half-Hazard: Poems

by Kristen Tracy

Half-Hazard is the Winner of the Emily Dickinson First Book Award from the Poetry Foundation for a debut by an American poet over forty.

Half-Hazard is a book of near misses, would-be tragedies, and luck. As Kristen Tracy writes in the title poem, “Dangers here. Perils there. It’ll go how it goes.” The collection follows her wide curiosity, from growing up in a small Mormon farming community to her exodus into the forbidden world, where she finds snakes, car accidents, adulterers, meteors, and death-marked mice. These wry, observant narratives are accompanied by a ringing lyricism, and Tracy’s knack for noticing what’s so funny about trouble and her natural impulse to want to put all the broken things back together. Full of wrong turns, false loves, quashed beliefs, and a menagerie of animals, Half-Hazard introduces a vibrant new voice in American poetry, one of resilience, faith, and joy.

Genres: Poetry, American

72 pages, Paperback

Published November 6, 2018

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very vivid imagery, written great.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really incredible collection of poems. If you are into poetry, I highly recommend it! I received an Advance Reader's Copy through the Graywolf Press Galley Club.

[Becki Iverson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This came with my Graywolf subscription a couple years ago and I'm just now getting around to reading it. Overall it was... ok? It felt like this collection was trying a little too hard; the prose just didn't quite flow for me and I struggled to engage with this. I do believe there's a subset of people out there who would love this - it just wasn't for me.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Rounding up because overall I really did enjoy this one. I appreciated Tracy's lyricism, probably because my personal style tends to gravitate that direction and I think it's underappreciated in contemporary poetry! (but I'm biased) I do think you are either going to love Tracy's poems or hate them. Even I got a little tired of the animal theme at times... These are earnest, endearing poems. Some of them work, some of them excel, and others miss the mark. I admired Tracy's confident writing.

Recommended if you like slice of life, unabashedly romantic (little r) poetry. There's a streak of melancholy that really hit the spot for me coupled with the playful tone.

"I wear my sadness like a coat / and the coat never comes off."

[Laura McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love reading a book that makes writing that kind of book seem both possible and urgently necessary. What I mean is, the stories it tells, the language it uses, the pace it sets--all of that feels so fluid and graceful that the reader gobbles the whole book and thinks, Yes, this is what it means to understand experience. To understand it is to tell it, to conjure it up--fully formed, three-dimensional, smelled and witnessed--like this, and maybe I can do that with my own confusion. Of course, poems as lightning-bright as these are not quickly, easily, or generally written, but somehow Tracy has made experience and the words for it feel within our collective grasp, and I think that's one of the most valuable things poetry can do for the world.

[Mara]

For me, this collection didn't really hit its stride until Section Three, but that entire section is stellar. Favorite poems include "YMCA, 1971," "Gardening on Alcatraz in July," and "What We Did before Our Apocalypse."

Childhood shows no mercy.
Others have had to catch much trickier knives--
all blade, no handle. (from "Circus Youth")

I'm saying I was wrong
and he was wrong
and that our two wrongs together
were like a river hitting
the first of the big rocks. (from "An Analogy")

[S. Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not someone who typically enjoys poems about animals. Kristen Tracy is one of my few exceptions. Tracy's poetry is grounded in the real world, yet manages to elevate the simple topics being explored towards a philosophical or even metaphysical clarity.

Favorite poems from this selection:

What Kind of Animal
YMCA 1971
Cannibals and Carnivores
Local News: Woman Dies in Chimney
When Fate Is Looking for You
An Analogy
Stamps
Vermont Collision

[Brittany Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of poems about animals and the poets interactions with them as well as the human animal. A lot of wonderful images throughout. Four star because there are some poems that pulled me out of the collection, that seemed more stream of thought and incoherent, but the majority of the poems were not like this.

[Brendan]

3 1/2

Decent collection.

Accessible poems. A bit more on animals than I would have preferred.

Favorites:
"Bountiful, Utah, 1972"
"Vermont Collision"
"Half-Hazard" - humorous rhyming piece
"Tell"

I know about my body, it turns
to be loved at every instance, it feels
warmth and it wants and it wants.
- "Breaking"

[Angelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the lyricism, not all of the imagery worked for me. I especially loved the poem "Tell" because I felt like it captured the feeling of being a teacher and wanting so much more for students than the hands they're often dealt.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

In an attempt to vary my reading genres, I searched reviews on new(er) poets. Tracy's debut was highly reviewed- but I only agreed with one reviewer's words: "Half-hazard" is a book of near misses.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this on a whim when I went to my local bookstore and loved the first couple poems. Someone once said to me no one reads poetry except poets and I haven't actively been a poet for a while but I'm glad I read this collection. Beautiful imagery and I savored the book slowly.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not every poem works. (More liberal cuts would have made this book much, much better.) When KTracy’s poems work, boy do they work. She loves to play language and is insightfully clever. Reminds me of a female Tony Hoagland. I look forward to her future books and the development of her poetry.

[Krysten · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just really loved the note this book ended on, a poem about winter turning to spring and the thaw of love. I needed that today.

[Christian Fink-Jensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the very few poetry books I was compelled to read in one sitting. And then start over again. Lovely, and sometime disconcerting, stories and images.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought these poems were just about perfect.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of the selections are thought provoking and many tough to read (though very important).

[Victors · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I think I can take my conscience out for waffles and sit in a comfortable booth and not feel the universe pinch me with its guilt." This book is full of sparks like this.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collection finished strong. Graywolf Press Galley Club edition.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few real gems scattered throughout, this collection is strengthened by its playfulness.

[Janice Hoffmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Watch out Kristen Tracy's poems are full of raw and difficult stories and funny and entertaining surprises - really I don't think I've ever read the likes of such.

[Simon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't usually like poems, but I enjoyed this one from my sister-in-law.

[Glyn Elyse · Rating 4 out of 5]

solid poetry that plays well with darkness and brutality. wish it was longer

[Sage Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh

[Mathea Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun collection!

[Meredith · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll enjoy more of these poems once I’ve experienced a few more of the things specifically written about in them.

Like gardening on Alcatraz: I remember touring the place alone and being so overawed with surprise and delight by the plants growing amok all over the island. Kristen Tracy does an amazing job putting that into words. Reading that poem was like listening to a new friend tell you her experience over tea and feel so I love with the world—because here, finally, for the first time in a while, is someone who just gets you, or at least one moment that you lived. That’s special.

I felt the same about her poems An Analogy—“...our two wrongs were like a river hitting the first of the big rocks. His tit for my tat didn’t improve anything for anyone. Except for the hikers who looked at the rapids from a huge distance in their dry shoes. They saw water leaping, something beautiful happening,” but of course Kristen knows that doesn’t make the relationship itself beautiful—and Happy Endings, where she expresses the same weariness I have nowadays for Red Weddings.

Finally, she did manage to make me cry. And isn’t that always worth the price of a book? Crying, laughing, thinking, or feeling something new, even just once? It happened when I read this conversation she has with herself at one point, sort of a bickering argument between her Best Self and her Hurt Self. Her Best Self kindly ends the conversation, “I have given you all these chances. Take them.” That did it for me.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed these poems … the voice, the cadence, the visuals. Quick, but enjoyable read.

"I fell from a Bible. A half-blond tease /
With a good good start, I struck out /
God-filled and thrilled."

the tiger at a magic show …
'could lead a completely different life
if it stopped
being so good at performing'

"Does a girl who lacks parties turn blue
in pitch black?
Dangers here. Perils there. It'll go how it goes."

"I like to think she mad the golden eggs /
to bridge their lives."

"I wear my sadness like a coat /
and the coat never comes off. /
It's wood buttons are fastened to me.

My life was going by. Year. Cake. Year. Cake.
And no circus. No clowns.
Who handed me these knives / to juggle?
Who said everything was going to be fine?

Lambs in the field. Chops on the plate …
The things we kiss goodbye
make room for all we kiss hello.

lawn mowing … 'chewing the yard'

youthful skepticism … 'I teetered / on the lip of a moral cup … I unsnapped God like a clip-on tie.'

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This summer I visited Utah and Idaho for the first time, and was struck by the unique combination of elements in that particular corner of the US: the stunning mountains, the alien landscapes of lava and salt, and the cultural landscapes of Mormonism. I chose Half-Hazard in thrall to its cover and in need of a bit of poetry, and surely it was a nice coincidence that Kristen Tracy's collection covers some similar ground. Tracy, who appears to be primarily an author of young adult books, is branching out but does succeed in creating a collection that is thematic while exercising a broad imagination.

The poems are populated by animals, relationships, and violent accidents of fate. Tracy writes of how she grew up out of her rural, religious origins and "unsnapped God like a clip-on tie” (Bountiful, Utah, 1972), and discovered a world that was simultaneously frightening and wonderful. I wasn't a fan of the first few poems in the collection, but a few really impressed me: Circus Youth ("lions reduced to cats"!), Local Hazards, Good-bye Idaho, and the title poem, which toys with the idea of whether the moon or Earth is safer for a girl.

[D · Rating 2 out of 5]

The beast was in the box. And it was impossible to tell,
but I thought the tiger looked blue, as blue

as a little girl who has lost her purse with money inside
for milk. I wanted someone to tell the tiger

it could lead a completely different life if it stopped
being so good at performing the trick.

Content Warning: Death, Animal / Pet Death, Brief Sexual Content

I liked the idea of this book - a lot of poems referencing nature, farms, and circus animals - but, unfortunately, the writing wasn't for me. Throughout this collection, the author uses a lot of vivid imagery and occasionally vaguely disturbing deaths (humans and animals), but I never really felt anything besides a little sad. It just seemed to be an overwhelmingly pessimistic book (though more of a vague pessimism), but without the substance needed to really understand why the author was so pessimistic.

[Amanda Kingston]

"...I've come to appreciate the happy ending, no matter how tacky or unearned. It's today. And death tolls continue to climb. You think I want the truth?"
---
WOOF. Honestly, this collection didn't really grab me until the second part, and then I began to reread many of the poems and lines and jot them down, like the one above. The collection hangs over tension of things that would-be, things that are, and things possible. There's some sadness and joy and lots and lots of life. I look forward to reading Tracy's other work!