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Everything Speaks In Its Own Way
70 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 11, 2016
Review can also be found here.
I’ve never had a great appreciation for prose and poetry—verse novels, yes. Plays like Sophocles’ and Shakespeare’s? Yes. But, just simply prose and poetry? No.
I tried my best really. My interest sparked in my creative writing class and I fell in love with how few words could deliver a sucker punch of emotions. It became a belief that each and every word has to be perfectly chosen and never wasted in order to create the desired imagery. And so, I began reading, starting off with Lang Leav’s Memories . Everybody was gushing over her works, calling it a combination of brilliance and beauty—and yes, there were some supremely beautiful ones…but the total of them can be counted with the fingers of one hand. The others were simply generic. Words you hear in songs, words you read in novels. They weren’t anything new.
Now, we’re at my second book of prose and poetry: Kate Tempest’s Everything Speaks in its Own Way . I can’t say I adore the usage of ‘coz’ because it simply killed the beauty in whichever prose and poetry it’s used in this in this book. However, I’m pleased that this book has a collection majorly better than Lang Leav’s. The base ideas for both Memories and Everything Speaks in its Own Way are generic, but Tempest expands them better. Don’t get me wrong—I think that some of the prose and poetry in this collection is bad, but ‘Cannibal Kids’? ‘Dogs’? They’re great, they’re beautiful and utterly brilliant.
I still don’t love prose and poetry, but as of now, I’m definitely not opposed to continue reading more. Hopefully, I’ll come across a collection that wows me from the first page to the last one day.
I’ve never had a great appreciation for prose and poetry—verse novels, yes. Plays like Sophocles’ and Shakespeare’s? Yes. But, just simply prose and poetry? No.
I tried my best really. My interest sparked in my creative writing class and I fell in love with how few words could deliver a sucker punch of emotions. It became a belief that each and every word has to be perfectly chosen and never wasted in order to create the desired imagery. And so, I began reading, starting off with Lang Leav’s Memories . Everybody was gushing over her works, calling it a combination of brilliance and beauty—and yes, there were some supremely beautiful ones…but the total of them can be counted with the fingers of one hand. The others were simply generic. Words you hear in songs, words you read in novels. They weren’t anything new.
Now, we’re at my second book of prose and poetry: Kate Tempest’s Everything Speaks in its Own Way . I can’t say I adore the usage of ‘coz’ because it simply killed the beauty in whichever prose and poetry it’s used in this in this book. However, I’m pleased that this book has a collection majorly better than Lang Leav’s. The base ideas for both Memories and Everything Speaks in its Own Way are generic, but Tempest expands them better. Don’t get me wrong—I think that some of the prose and poetry in this collection is bad, but ‘Cannibal Kids’? ‘Dogs’? They’re great, they’re beautiful and utterly brilliant.
I still don’t love prose and poetry, but as of now, I’m definitely not opposed to continue reading more. Hopefully, I’ll come across a collection that wows me from the first page to the last one day.
November 2, 2012
This book has instantly found itself a spot in my Top 5 books of all time. Kate's poetry speaks as loudly on paper as it does when she performs.
August 15, 2015
A quick note - this review reveals the format and tone of the overall collection, discussing the language, more than the subjects of the poems. But if you don't want to know anything, don't read this review.
I've now read all of Kate Tempest's poetry (and I devoured this collection in 24 hours). If I was to read her plays, she would be the only author I have ever read all the existing work of. I don't find myself disappointed, however, that all her poetry is read. I'm happy to have absorbed it and experienced it all, and I feel I can understand a complete side of her writing. As seems to be the case with me and poets, I started at the end, and have worked backwards. This means there will be constant comparisons with her latest collection 'Hold Your Own', but I hope these comparisons aren't unfair, and are a way of looking at how she changes as a poet. I do wonder whether I should have read this first. I don't regret reading her work backwards at all, but maybe coming to this fresh means that you can see her language and its power even more clearly.
As her first collection of poetry, I expected a naive and developing Kate Tempest. I think I expected to watch as she found her form, picked up her themes, and chose what to run with. In one sense, I found this. The collection has a couple of references to "ancients", there's the word "mancub", which is developed and repeated in 'Hold Your Own', and the collection is split between poems about society, and poems about love. The naivety is shown in herself, in her insecurity, but it is not in the language.
Because in another sense, I was surprised at how strong and confident this collection of poetry is. I was delighted to find that she talks about writing; when she writes, how she writes and why she writes. These are poems that acknowledge the time in which they are being written and the reasons they are written for. Writing isn't new to her, but it's something she's still trying out, wearing in. This is a recurring theme in a collection which runs off recurring themes. I didn't find much diversity in what she writes about. Her society poems, which are quite cover broad themes, yet are lithe in 'Hold Your Own', are generally boiled down to being about the City. All of her poems have a strong sense of London, or escaping London. If she escapes the city, it is often to Paris, where she talks about her and love sitting on pavements. (I suppose in this sense, she is quite Joycean, and the title of this collection comes from Joyce.)
The love poems are almost exclusively revolve around mornings. Waking up, looking at the sun on the body of her lover. These occasionally stray into poems about the night before, rushing away from the city to meet them, or sitting in cafes and bars waiting. There's a lot of doubt and a lot of waiting in her love poems - many of which are about love that is waiting to be given and felt. The key thing about this collection is that the poems are all of a similar tone. I have only read it once, however, and it is much heavier than her other work. It is very possible that the nuances in tone become larger and more developed when I reread and rediscover them, and the poems will become more individual over time. It's similar to listening to an album for the first time and thinking that all the songs sound the same.
On the subject of an album - these poems have a strong rap element to them. Tempest is first and foremost a rapper, and she sinks into poetry as she develops. In this collection, however, stanzas are repeated, as if the poems have choruses. I was initially put off by this, and scan read many of the repeats. It wasn't until 'Patterns', the mammoth poem at the end (which I was delighted to find she re-used in the song she did with Bastille, 'Forever Ever'), that I noticed the advantage of the repetition. She repeats a stanza three times in this, and on each repeat I picked up something new. Or phrases that meant something to me the first time meant more. It's an effective technique, and it may not work in all of her poems (something a reread will show me), but I can see why she has done it. (The book also comes with a CD and DVD, both of which I'm yet to sample, and I imagine these repeats will benefit her spoken performance well.)
It's interesting using the word 'stanza' for this poetry, because only one or two poems have traditional stanzas. The others are organised into paragraphs, with what would be a line of a poem becoming a sentence. I suppose this is 'prose poetry', but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like the choice was made for the formatting of the book, more than anything else. The rhyming scheme in this is carried across the majority of the poems (probably another reason why the tone feels so similar), and so each sentence is essentially a couplet, and this is subverted by extending the sentences beyond the rhymes, time to time. I'm not a great fan of prose in any form, but the rhyming and the rhythm did make the poems a joy to read, regardless of their format. For me, though, with the repetition of theme, tone, and often events, the paragraphs made the poems seem quite heavy. It's a short volume, only 37 poems (I think), and the length of the poems is fine. But they seem to have weight - the paragraphs mean that so so much is packed in together. This can make the rhythm and the poetry all the more impressive, but it also means that it doesn't have the lithe, free and more relaxed feel of 'Hold Your Own'. Naturally, as a first collection anyway, there will be differences. In her latest work, she delves into new areas and shows things in different ways. This collection has poems that are glimmers of the moments I love in 'Hold Your Own', but this collection is more likely to produce them as poems with a more regimented structure (not that this is at all detrimental to them).
The words in this collection are magnificent. There are key phrases, brilliantly worded lines that reflect small parts of human emotion and experience, and it's these I love. It's these I read her poetry for. I prefer her love poems to any others, and although they are quite samey (for now, anyway) within this collection, she presents an undeniably personal way of writing. There are intense poems, but there are also pauses that she reflects on, and that she fills with words. Everything here is her though. A defence of hip hop, a poem about her sister, and discovering her writing. It's a pleasure to read something that looks full on her own life without blinking. Yet they're written in a way that never says too much, and allows a reader to find themselves.
Tempest has confidence in this collection, and a huge amount of pride in her own achievements (interestingly contrasted with the many doubts she feels about her love life, which is constantly fraught with insecurity). The confidence is bold and surprising, the insecurities are sort of what I was looking for. But, unlike I expected, there are few to be found in the language. Tempest knows she has the language in her control and she shows this. With this gained, she can then push further, be more brave, and most importantly, be more free in the future.
This is a bold and exciting start for her poetry, showcasing the beginning of all the themes she will explore. Tempest is like Picasso. She can write like a genius when she starts, but as she grows, she can use that genius to write in new ways and find her own styles. Her language is an incredibly powerful force in this collection, whether in louder of quieter moments, and it is a joy to read and experience.
The one thing I feel that this collection misses out on, though, is showing just how sprightly and rhythmic her words are. The formatting doesn't help this, but I've no doubt the performances of her poetry will show just how these are meant to sound.
Poems I'd recommend: 'Laura', 'The Mouse Hiding Out in the Lion's Hair', 'Patterns' and probably loads more. Just buy the book.
I've now read all of Kate Tempest's poetry (and I devoured this collection in 24 hours). If I was to read her plays, she would be the only author I have ever read all the existing work of. I don't find myself disappointed, however, that all her poetry is read. I'm happy to have absorbed it and experienced it all, and I feel I can understand a complete side of her writing. As seems to be the case with me and poets, I started at the end, and have worked backwards. This means there will be constant comparisons with her latest collection 'Hold Your Own', but I hope these comparisons aren't unfair, and are a way of looking at how she changes as a poet. I do wonder whether I should have read this first. I don't regret reading her work backwards at all, but maybe coming to this fresh means that you can see her language and its power even more clearly.
As her first collection of poetry, I expected a naive and developing Kate Tempest. I think I expected to watch as she found her form, picked up her themes, and chose what to run with. In one sense, I found this. The collection has a couple of references to "ancients", there's the word "mancub", which is developed and repeated in 'Hold Your Own', and the collection is split between poems about society, and poems about love. The naivety is shown in herself, in her insecurity, but it is not in the language.
Because in another sense, I was surprised at how strong and confident this collection of poetry is. I was delighted to find that she talks about writing; when she writes, how she writes and why she writes. These are poems that acknowledge the time in which they are being written and the reasons they are written for. Writing isn't new to her, but it's something she's still trying out, wearing in. This is a recurring theme in a collection which runs off recurring themes. I didn't find much diversity in what she writes about. Her society poems, which are quite cover broad themes, yet are lithe in 'Hold Your Own', are generally boiled down to being about the City. All of her poems have a strong sense of London, or escaping London. If she escapes the city, it is often to Paris, where she talks about her and love sitting on pavements. (I suppose in this sense, she is quite Joycean, and the title of this collection comes from Joyce.)
The love poems are almost exclusively revolve around mornings. Waking up, looking at the sun on the body of her lover. These occasionally stray into poems about the night before, rushing away from the city to meet them, or sitting in cafes and bars waiting. There's a lot of doubt and a lot of waiting in her love poems - many of which are about love that is waiting to be given and felt. The key thing about this collection is that the poems are all of a similar tone. I have only read it once, however, and it is much heavier than her other work. It is very possible that the nuances in tone become larger and more developed when I reread and rediscover them, and the poems will become more individual over time. It's similar to listening to an album for the first time and thinking that all the songs sound the same.
On the subject of an album - these poems have a strong rap element to them. Tempest is first and foremost a rapper, and she sinks into poetry as she develops. In this collection, however, stanzas are repeated, as if the poems have choruses. I was initially put off by this, and scan read many of the repeats. It wasn't until 'Patterns', the mammoth poem at the end (which I was delighted to find she re-used in the song she did with Bastille, 'Forever Ever'), that I noticed the advantage of the repetition. She repeats a stanza three times in this, and on each repeat I picked up something new. Or phrases that meant something to me the first time meant more. It's an effective technique, and it may not work in all of her poems (something a reread will show me), but I can see why she has done it. (The book also comes with a CD and DVD, both of which I'm yet to sample, and I imagine these repeats will benefit her spoken performance well.)
It's interesting using the word 'stanza' for this poetry, because only one or two poems have traditional stanzas. The others are organised into paragraphs, with what would be a line of a poem becoming a sentence. I suppose this is 'prose poetry', but it doesn't feel like that. It feels like the choice was made for the formatting of the book, more than anything else. The rhyming scheme in this is carried across the majority of the poems (probably another reason why the tone feels so similar), and so each sentence is essentially a couplet, and this is subverted by extending the sentences beyond the rhymes, time to time. I'm not a great fan of prose in any form, but the rhyming and the rhythm did make the poems a joy to read, regardless of their format. For me, though, with the repetition of theme, tone, and often events, the paragraphs made the poems seem quite heavy. It's a short volume, only 37 poems (I think), and the length of the poems is fine. But they seem to have weight - the paragraphs mean that so so much is packed in together. This can make the rhythm and the poetry all the more impressive, but it also means that it doesn't have the lithe, free and more relaxed feel of 'Hold Your Own'. Naturally, as a first collection anyway, there will be differences. In her latest work, she delves into new areas and shows things in different ways. This collection has poems that are glimmers of the moments I love in 'Hold Your Own', but this collection is more likely to produce them as poems with a more regimented structure (not that this is at all detrimental to them).
The words in this collection are magnificent. There are key phrases, brilliantly worded lines that reflect small parts of human emotion and experience, and it's these I love. It's these I read her poetry for. I prefer her love poems to any others, and although they are quite samey (for now, anyway) within this collection, she presents an undeniably personal way of writing. There are intense poems, but there are also pauses that she reflects on, and that she fills with words. Everything here is her though. A defence of hip hop, a poem about her sister, and discovering her writing. It's a pleasure to read something that looks full on her own life without blinking. Yet they're written in a way that never says too much, and allows a reader to find themselves.
Tempest has confidence in this collection, and a huge amount of pride in her own achievements (interestingly contrasted with the many doubts she feels about her love life, which is constantly fraught with insecurity). The confidence is bold and surprising, the insecurities are sort of what I was looking for. But, unlike I expected, there are few to be found in the language. Tempest knows she has the language in her control and she shows this. With this gained, she can then push further, be more brave, and most importantly, be more free in the future.
This is a bold and exciting start for her poetry, showcasing the beginning of all the themes she will explore. Tempest is like Picasso. She can write like a genius when she starts, but as she grows, she can use that genius to write in new ways and find her own styles. Her language is an incredibly powerful force in this collection, whether in louder of quieter moments, and it is a joy to read and experience.
The one thing I feel that this collection misses out on, though, is showing just how sprightly and rhythmic her words are. The formatting doesn't help this, but I've no doubt the performances of her poetry will show just how these are meant to sound.
Poems I'd recommend: 'Laura', 'The Mouse Hiding Out in the Lion's Hair', 'Patterns' and probably loads more. Just buy the book.
June 4, 2017
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Some of the poems in this collection I adored, some I was indifferent about - but I was surprised to find that I found them all really hard to read. I have a feeling it's more to do with the tiny print and bulk formatting of poetry as opposed to Tempest's writing itself since I've never had a problem with her style in the past. But I definitely enjoyed this collection less because I couldn't properly process what was being said, so sadly this is not my favourite of her collections. Having said that, there were some wonderful poems in here, and just as you expect from Kate Tempest, we get a perfect commentary on modern life - both in the melancholic, angry and triumphant ways.
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars
Some of the poems in this collection I adored, some I was indifferent about - but I was surprised to find that I found them all really hard to read. I have a feeling it's more to do with the tiny print and bulk formatting of poetry as opposed to Tempest's writing itself since I've never had a problem with her style in the past. But I definitely enjoyed this collection less because I couldn't properly process what was being said, so sadly this is not my favourite of her collections. Having said that, there were some wonderful poems in here, and just as you expect from Kate Tempest, we get a perfect commentary on modern life - both in the melancholic, angry and triumphant ways.
July 21, 2016
Another brilliant book by Kate Tempest (my new favorite writer). "Monuments" is the best love poem I've ever read.
March 15, 2014
Simply wonderful.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews