Critics often describe Laux's poetic voice as strong and convincing. In the Women's Review of Books, Alison Townsend looks at What We Carry, the collection in which “For the Sake of Strangers” was first published. Townsend comments, “Laux's voice is taut, tough, sensuous. . . . Her medium is the autobiographical lyric-narrative poem, but one so thoroughly grounded in the real world that it becomes a kind of transparent container, transmitting experience with uncanny immediacy.” In Ploughshares, Philip Levine recommends What We Carry to readers, describing it as “gritty” in its realistic depiction of modern life. Laux's reviewers often applaud her clarity of expression and her ability to bring to life an image or an experience. Townsend expresses a similar admiration when she comments that Laux gives “scrupulous attention to detail” and “locates her poetry in the things of this world—the physical, the real, the daily.” This is...