Review of Uncommon Poems Common People

Gabriella Smith · Post by **Gabriella Smith** » 11 Oct 2021, 09:35

[Following is a volunteer review of "Uncommon Poems Common People" by T.D. Kruser (Terry Kruser).]

3 out of 4 stars

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Uncommon Poems Common People by Terry D Kruser serves as a collective of Kruser’s last 40 years of poetry. There is a great flow between poems, so much so that it is sometimes difficult to separate them. When this happens, it is interesting to see two different poems build on one another and become a new work. The poems are about almost everything. Topics mostly follow the theme of love and life lessons.

The poems are insightful and inspiring. Specifically, the poem titled ‘The edge and me’ had such incredible imagery that I felt I was watching a performance while reading it. For this reason, ‘the edge and me’ became my favourite poem in Uncommon Poems Common People. Most of the poems have open-ended interpretations which make them much more accessible to the masses. I liked that the different themes could be distinguished easily without creating a sense of whiplash for the reader. The afterword was interesting as well, as it shed just enough light onto the topics as was necessary while still allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions.

Some of Kruser’s poems could be interpreted as juvenile, which is to be expected of those written early in his career. This is particularly seen in some of the poems that are love-themed, of which there are many. Most, however, are well written and can create a sense of wonder such as the poem titled ‘Can it be’. I enjoyed that the beginning of the book seemed to follow the path of life. This is easy to pick up on and forms a beautiful story.

I would rate this book a 3 out of four stars. It is well written and executed, but the more junior poems take away from the reader’s enjoyment. For that reason, I must omit a star. This being said, I feel it is professionally edited as I could not find any spelling or grammatical errors outside of poetic license. Generally speaking, Uncommon Poems Common People is a collection worth reading.

As previously mentioned, the interpretation is open-ended, and the poems are easily understood. This makes the target audience much wider than most poetry collections. I would recommend this book to all readers over 12. I feel these poems would be great examples to use in classrooms to help students understand interpretation. In other words, I can imagine these poems being studied as a base for understanding English literature.

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Uncommon Poems Common People
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