Divisible by Itself and One
Published on 27. April 2023
Book
Paperback/Softback
64 pages
978-1-5290-7311-9 (ISBN)
Description
I want to sing you early songs. Go deeper.
I want to take you back where you began,
Find the scraps of you you hid in secret
And bring them back to life beneath my tongue.
Divisible by Itself and One is the powerful new collection from our foremost truth-teller Kae Tempest. Ruminative, wise, with a newer, more contemplative and metaphysical note running through, it is a book engaged with the big questions and the emotional states in which we live and create. Some of the poems experiment with form, some are free, and yet all are politically and morally conscious. Divisible by Itself and One is also a book about human form, the body as boundary and how we are read by the world. Taking its bearings - and title - from the prime number, Divisible by Itself and One is concerned, ultimately, with integrity: how to live in honest relationship with oneself and others.
"Tempest delivers their thoughts gorgeously, rhythmically, but also with clarity and a fierce grace" Observer
I want to take you back where you began,
Find the scraps of you you hid in secret
And bring them back to life beneath my tongue.
Divisible by Itself and One is the powerful new collection from our foremost truth-teller Kae Tempest. Ruminative, wise, with a newer, more contemplative and metaphysical note running through, it is a book engaged with the big questions and the emotional states in which we live and create. Some of the poems experiment with form, some are free, and yet all are politically and morally conscious. Divisible by Itself and One is also a book about human form, the body as boundary and how we are read by the world. Taking its bearings - and title - from the prime number, Divisible by Itself and One is concerned, ultimately, with integrity: how to live in honest relationship with oneself and others.
"Tempest delivers their thoughts gorgeously, rhythmically, but also with clarity and a fierce grace" Observer
Reviews / Votes
A winning wielder of words * Observer * Tempest has forged their own voice, unlike anything else in the mainstream poetry world * Independent on Sunday * One of the brightest British talents around * Guardian * [Tempest] has made history, transcending the line between poetry and music * The Telegraph * 'Like the great Philip Larkin, Tempest has an ability to write about big, metaphysical subjects in the most vernacular language, while conjuring a sense of contemporary English life with a handful of chiselled lines . . . shuttles easily back and forth between the mundane and the mythic, the banal and philosophical' * The New York Times * Dazzling wordsmithery. . . As anyone who has seen them perform will know, they don't just paint pictures with words when they perform, they paint fireworks in the night sky * Metro * Tempest's lyricism is inherently musical . . . the cadence conveys the confidence of a writer who not only knows exactly what they wish to articulate, but more importantly, how to articulate it' * Poetry London *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Pan Macmillan
Target group
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 190 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 10 mm
Weight
111 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5290-7311-9 (9781529073119)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Person
Kae Tempest is a poet. They are also a writer, a lyricist, a performer and a recording artist. They have published plays, poems, a novel, a book-length essay, released albums and toured extensively, selling out shows from Reykjavik to Rio de Janeiro.
They received Mercury Music Prize nominations for both of the albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos, and two Ivor Novello nominations for their song-writing on The Book of Traps and Lessons. They were named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, a once-in-a-decade accolade. Tempest also received the Ted Hughes Award for their long-form narrative poem Brand New Ancients and the Leone D'Argento at the Venice Teatro Biennale for their work as a playwright.
Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. They were born in London in 1985 where they still live. They hope to continue putting words together for a long time.
They received Mercury Music Prize nominations for both of the albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos, and two Ivor Novello nominations for their song-writing on The Book of Traps and Lessons. They were named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, a once-in-a-decade accolade. Tempest also received the Ted Hughes Award for their long-form narrative poem Brand New Ancients and the Leone D'Argento at the Venice Teatro Biennale for their work as a playwright.
Their books have been translated into eleven languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. They were born in London in 1985 where they still live. They hope to continue putting words together for a long time.