There is always grace

Mentioned the other day that I was lucky enough to have a ticket to go and hear Kae Tempest, at the Assembly Rooms ...

... the actual event was last Thursday, and I cannot tell you how astounding their performance was: 10 or 15 minutes of chat; then an absolute tour-de-force of a whole hour (yes, a whole uninterrupted hour!) of a single stream of recited poetry, carried off without any reference to notes(!); then a final 10 or 15 minutes of poetry read directly from their new volume (as pictured), which has just been published.

Hard to describe just what an extraordinary event it was - so glad I was there :-)

Managed to get a signed-copy of the new volume, and here is a favourite, as taken from within:


Simple Things
 
No matter how long we’ve been clucking for gold
Or bread
Or each other’s bodies
Or each other’s shoes
Or brighter homes, futures, minds or television screens
 
All through the misery, sickness
The treachery
All through the want and unrest
 
There was always rain
 
There was always the wind through the rye in the evening
The silence of the deep night
The wide moon like a boat through tall buildings
And one lover alone on the road
 
There was always a pit in the earth for the bones
And a cloth on a hook in a kitchen
There was always a song being hummed by the water
Teenagers laughing at things only they understood
 
There was always a clean new morning, sober and fresh as the laundry
Coming up slowly
The prospect of maybe today
 
There was always the grace of a new resolution
Always the sound of the children sleeping
Slow breath as heavy as trust
And what you would do to protect them
 
There was always the key-change of friendship proven
Always the gestures older than words
 
Always the person leaving the ruins
Saying this is my way, I must walk

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Kae Tempest (1985 - )

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