POETRY REVIEW: Unclenched Emotion by Natasha Gruss

Title: Unclenched Emotion

Author: Natasha Gruss

About The Author

Natasha has been intrigued by poetry and has been writing it since she was nine years old, maybe younger. She has a degree in English Literature, which has not yet helped her make any kind of money, but it does attest to her love of reading. She is the mother of a teenage daughter who struggles with Autism. Natasha has a strong background in the mental health field and feels compassionate towards all people. She has been happy to make this poetry book, exploring one of her favourite passions. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, surrounded by nature, where she loves it the most.

Book Blurb

This short but poignant collection of poems offers insights into the soul of Natasha Gruss. While Natasha is only one person, persons’ feelings can easily correlate to another’s meaning this book reaches out to a wide variety of the human population. It is for people who want to see beauty and joy, but who also want to empathize with sadness and find release from their own. It is for people who want to marvel at the mysteries of life and who want to feel.”Un-Clenched Emotion” explores timeless philosophical questions people may ask and it lets people be free to answer those questions themselves. The poems in this book were written throughout Natasha’s life; from being a young child to being a high school student to being an adult; making the poems timeless in nature. The poems were written throughout different areas of the United States, some being in the reality of this world and revelling in nature, some exploring the universe, and some exploring dreams. If you like to celebrate feelings and the human psyche, these poems are perfect for you.
The Review

Un-Clenched Emotion by Natasha Gruss is a book of poems that talk of life and the world through the feelings they produce in the poet. It is divided into three sections called Enjoying, Despairing and Philosophizing, the title of each being self-explanatory as regards the particular emotion that it portrays.

The poems are written in freestyle, without the traditional rhyming structure. The sentences are sharp and often short but they complement the feelings of darkness, turbulence, conflict and an attempt to understand the complexities and contrasts in life.

Natasha has painted some beautiful images of nature especially in the first section of the book. My favourite poem is ‘Night’ for its beautiful flow and the use of personification to describe the night. ‘Cruel and Tender’ is another poem that stands out, for the very well portrayed contrast between the cruel world and the tenderness of the person referred to as ‘You’. In the section ‘philosophizing,’ we can see the poet mulling the questions of life and existence.

The prose-like quality of the poems becomes more pronounced as the book progresses but hope runs through every dark cloud that the poet sees and experiences.

As regards the formatting of the book, I felt that it would have been better to have a more detailed contents page for easier reference.

If you want poetry that will make you think, I recommend reading Un-Clenched Emotion.