Hold Your Own: Poems - Softcover

Tempest, Kae

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1632862050 ISBN 13: 9781632862051

Publisher: Bloomsbury USA, 2015

Synopsis

My heart throws its head against my ribs, / it's denting every bone it's venting something it has known since I arrived and felt it beat.

Kate Tempest, winner of the Ted Hughes Award for Brand New Ancients and widely regarded as the UK's leading spoken word poet, has produced a new poem-sequence of electrifying power. Based on the myth of the blind prophet Tiresias, Hold Your Own is a riveting tale of youth and experience, sex and love, wealth and poverty, community and alienation. Walking in the forest one morning, a young man disturbs two copulating snakes--and is punished by the goddess Hera, who turns him into a woman. This is only the beginning of his journey . . . Weaving elements of classical myth, autobiography and social commentary, Tempest uses the story of the gender-switching, clairvoyant Tiresias to create four sequences of poems, addressing childhood, manhood, womanhood, and late life. The result is a rhythmically hypnotic tour de force--and a hugely ambitious leap forward for one of the most broadly talented and compelling young writers today.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Tempest grew up in southeast London and started rapping when she was sixteen years old. She has had a varied career as a poet, playwright, rapper, and recording artist. She has released a spoken-word album; a multimedia project Everything Speaks in its Own Way; and a recording album, Balance, with her band Sound of Rum. Her solo record, Everybody Down -- a concept album featuring characters who will return in her debut novel, The Bricks That Build the Houses (Bloomsbury, Winter 16) -- is shortlisted for the 2014 Mercury Prize. She is a two-time winner of the poetry slam at the Nu Yorican Poetry Cafe, and has received poetry commissions from the Royal Shakespeare Company and the BBC. Her narrative poem Brand New Ancients, conceived as a performance piece, won the Ted Hughes Award in 2012, and will be published alongside Hold Your Own, her first collection. In 2014, Tempest was selected as one of this decade's 20 Next Generation Poets from the UK and Ireland.

From School Library Journal

A winner of the Ted Hughes Award and a praised creator of spoken-word performances, Tempest has written a series of poems inspired by the myth of Tiresias. When Zeus and his wife, Hera, fought about who enjoyed sex the most—men or women—Tiresias, who had been both, was summoned and lost his sight in the tumult. The slim book is divided into four sections: "Childhood," "Womanhood," "Manhood," and "Blind Prophet." The long opening poem tells the story of Tiresias, 15, walking through woods and seeing two copulating snakes. He strikes them with a stick and falls, waking up female. Tiresias adjusts to the switch, finds love, but changes back to a man after several years. After he is blinded, he becomes a prophet. "Childhood" has several lively poems that teens should especially enjoy. The descriptions in "School" will ring true for many young people: "We wander into school, happy children;/kind and bright and interested in things./We don't yet know the horrors of the building./The hatred it will teach. The boredom it will bring." In the "Womanhood" poems, the woman Tiresias is described: "The boy in her is strong some days/And calls out for a girl to touch." "Manhood" also continues the mythic tale; the angry poems in the final section, "Blind Prophet," may suit the mood of some young adults. VERDICT A strong work that will introduce teens to a myth and to an examination of sexuality.—Karlan Sick, Library Consultant, New York City

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1632862050
• ISBN 13: 9781632862051
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 128