Customer Reviews

Uncommon Poems for the Common Reader

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MR.VERSACE's poems may be "uncommon," that is, slightly unusual, but his
poetic quality is definitely erratic. He can range from abstract sound-effects to concrete ordinariness to slightly risque allure. His best poems are his simplest and plainest ones, where he does not try so hard to impress with re-sounding words and phrases that only confuse and jar the reader's ears and understanding. One of his best poems is called "DEATH" where he factually reports and describes encountering an old man who has just lost his wife the previous night: here the language
and the effects are real, compelling, and meaningful. Would that MR. VERSACE would choose to write more poems like this one and fewer ones that depend on contorted word-play, something he is good at but which few
"common readers" appreciate. In all, as a first volume of poems, it is entirely too large; his follow-up slimmer volume of some 68 poems called
POEMS FOR SALE (available on his web-site <A-POEM-A-DAY.ORG>)is far superior in the quality of its offerings and more readable in its more limited scope. I hope that MR. VERSACE will produce more volumes like his
effective POEMS FOR SALE in the near future because I like what he says and how he says it.