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Brute
In this unflinching collection, Brute pulls no punches. Temptation and trauma walk hand in hand with dark humour, scarred tenderness, and streetwise wisdom. These poems dwell in the margins, where grief smokes alone.
Finalist for the 2025 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Award
Praise for Brute
Sometimes amongst all of the crap someone comes along and puts it down plain and simple. It helps you get up in the mornings. It helps you get through all of the days. It makes you feel less lonely. Brute is a rare book - it has a kind of magic in it that makes you feel more alive than before you’d read it. It is good.
I haven’t read anyone who has ever made sadness and the shit we have to go through feel this good.
─ Martin Hayes, Poet and Author
★★★★★
Steven Bruce has written a new collection that cuts through the noise of contemporary poetry with its sharp insistence on looking reality hard in the eye without recourse to self pity or any kind of transcendence or easy redemption. This remarkable work examines the possibility of survival and the hardest edges of trauma yet it is brilliantly controlled and chiselled onto the page, its images ringing true in your mind long after you put it down. This isn’t just working class testimony as poetry, it is carefully crafted art that demands to be read and reread.
─ Andy Willoughby, Poet and Author
★★★★★
Bruce's poems were written in the trenches of humanity's rage.
─ Barbara Leonhard, Masticadores USA
★★★★★
Finalist for the 2025 Independent Author Network Book of the Year Award
Praise for Brute
Sometimes amongst all of the crap someone comes along and puts it down plain and simple. It helps you get up in the mornings. It helps you get through all of the days. It makes you feel less lonely. Brute is a rare book - it has a kind of magic in it that makes you feel more alive than before you’d read it. It is good.
I haven’t read anyone who has ever made sadness and the shit we have to go through feel this good.
─ Martin Hayes, Poet and Author
★★★★★
Steven Bruce has written a new collection that cuts through the noise of contemporary poetry with its sharp insistence on looking reality hard in the eye without recourse to self pity or any kind of transcendence or easy redemption. This remarkable work examines the possibility of survival and the hardest edges of trauma yet it is brilliantly controlled and chiselled onto the page, its images ringing true in your mind long after you put it down. This isn’t just working class testimony as poetry, it is carefully crafted art that demands to be read and reread.
─ Andy Willoughby, Poet and Author
★★★★★
Bruce's poems were written in the trenches of humanity's rage.
─ Barbara Leonhard, Masticadores USA
★★★★★
100 pages, Paperback
Published July 25, 2025
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 12, 2025
Steven Bruce’s BRUTE is a relentless, raw masterpiece that doesn’t just tell stories—it guts you open and hands you the pulse of life in every line. The work moves from the visceral, almost mythic existence of Brute to the intimate, brutal realism of human suffering and survival, exploring grief, addiction, and the search for meaning with equal ferocity. Bruce’s poetry doesn’t just evoke emotion; it forces recognition. It’s unflinching in its portrayal of pain and tender in its glimpses of connection, small joys, and redemption.
Every section is its own universe: from the searing honesty of PRIME CUTS to the elemental storytelling of GAME CUTS, the collection oscillates between stark realism, philosophical introspection, and almost fable-like narrative. His language is sharp yet unpretentious, visceral yet luminous, blending lyricism with a narrative punch that hits like a gut punch and a caress simultaneously.
This is poetry that refuses to be decorative. It’s messy, beautiful, and unapologetically human. Five stars for work that shakes the bones, warms the heart, and leaves an imprint you can’t shake. It’s not just read—it’s survived.
Every section is its own universe: from the searing honesty of PRIME CUTS to the elemental storytelling of GAME CUTS, the collection oscillates between stark realism, philosophical introspection, and almost fable-like narrative. His language is sharp yet unpretentious, visceral yet luminous, blending lyricism with a narrative punch that hits like a gut punch and a caress simultaneously.
This is poetry that refuses to be decorative. It’s messy, beautiful, and unapologetically human. Five stars for work that shakes the bones, warms the heart, and leaves an imprint you can’t shake. It’s not just read—it’s survived.
Displaying 1 of 1 review