Half Light

by Ari Augustine, KJ Harrowick (Designer)

In the lost garden
the remains of our dreams sing
softly in the rain

失われた庭で
私たちの夢の遺跡が歌う
雨の中でそっと

Half Light is divided into four chapters–Clay, Rust, Blood, & Roots–which take an intimately reflective and raw visit to the past. To the place where we began. To the things that wounded us. To the skins we shed. To the creatures we became. To all the things we buried, and all the ways we can’t let them rest. This collection features interior watercolor art, and the poetry style is part stream-of-conscious memory and self-mythology.

Genres: Poetry

108 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 21, 2022

About the author

Ari Augustine is an author of adult science fiction and fantasy stories, an independent book editor, and the published poet of ELSEWHERE WE BECAME and HALF LIGHT.

Her current projects include GODFLOWER [an adult contemporary fantasy steeped in Japanese lore] and THE EVERLIGHT PROTOCOL [a serialized space fantasy in the vein of intergalactic Attack On Titan with Witcher vibes].

When not writing, she enjoys video gaming, crime documentaries, learning Japanese/Mandarin, traveling the world, and conspiring with the neighborhood stray cats. She lives in the wilds of Eastern Tennessee with her husband and their two mischief-making kitties, Mori-kun and Little Fury.

Reviews

[Rebecca Crunden]

❧ poetry review

War was our mother tongue.
Rooted in gunpowder silt,
We grew from the ruins.
It was milk of inherited fury,
Ordinary words imprisoned to pages, wound in red,
Air to lungs & water to lips.
It was the needle & the thread, & through creation, undoing.
They say it’s all we know.

I really enjoyed this! A great collection of poetry and prose.

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[K.J. Harrowick · Rating 5 out of 5]

*ARC review coming soon*

[Eryn McConnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark, disturbing and beautiful. I love the poet's voice here. They really weave ideas well with words. Very nice indeed

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky to receive an ARC of Half-Light and am anxious for other readers to get to read this in December. This was a beautifully intense collection of poetry. While I am no poetry aficianado, I do dabble and appreciate poetry as a form of storytelling and soul searching/sharing. While this is an incredibly heavy collection, and at times difficult to follow (for me), it still should manage to connect with a reader through a single piece and/or section on some subconscious level no matter our relation to the subject matter or our experiences. I absolutely loved the graphics and presentation of the four different sections and progression of the poet's memories/thoughts on the subject matter (the trauma experienced in their life). And while it is not a happy book (as warned by the author), I still found a seed of hope and lightening in the fourth section (Roots) despite the acknowledgement of the rough reality of recovering and/or merely trying to survive in a world after experiencing so much darkness. I think I'm going to need multiple reads and would encourage that of other readers as there is a lot to unpack. But even if you are a reader simply wanting to experience a piece on a single read without delving in too deeply, I think this is a good collection. Except for 'Conversations with NASA' all of the poems can be quickly read and understood on a basic level (though I would hope more thoughtful rumination be done to get as much as you can out of it). Ari certainly has a way with words and, while I know poems should be taken as a whole, there are also poignant and impactful lines that can easily stand alone and hit really hard.