Scattered Cranes is a bit of an elegy to time spent rodeoing, roughnecking and construction work on bridges across bodies of water large and small in those areas of America that the coastal bound fly over, barely registering the beauty of the farmland patterns and jungles below. Then clouds form a protective layer. There is no protective layer in Scattered Cranes. Some of it is down and dirty, while other passages are dreamlike and aspirational, with a thread of humor. And where there is humor, there is optimism. As the foreword says, it's like rodeo, you're out there with your try. Scattered Cranes is a bustling, dusty arena for Wise's try. Enjoy it. .a compelling and essential collection of bare-knuckle poetry. Ben Banyard, Editor/Publisher Clear Poetry, UK Expect Wise's world to stay inside you after you've read it, and roll to the surface for attention like a memory or a dream. Chelsea Laine Wells, Writer, Fiction Editor Hypertext, Hypernova, (b)Oink Wise's collection is both hauntingly nostalgic and piercingly urgent. Jen Knox, Author of After the Gazebo and The Glass City