I believe that poetry spoken aloud is poetry in its truest form, and I know for sure that I am not alone in this opinion. As Ella Wills said in her Her Campus review of the Jamaican Poet Laureate Mervyn Morris’ reading, when poetry is spoken aloud by it’s creator, we hear all the “intended intonations and nuances”. This was certainly true when the award-winning poet Kate Tempest, currently nominated for a Mercury prize, gave a reading from her new book of poems Hold Your Own in Bath on Wednesday.
A veteran of the spoken word circuit, having begun her career as a rapper, Kate Tempest’s readings are a whirlwind of emotions, mind-blowingly deft wordplay, and mesmerising staging, as she gesticulates and moves about the stage to enact her words. She is not limited by a podium or a book from which to read – she becomes the poem, oscillating between pitches and volumes, singing some lines and shouting others. It is not surprising that the crowd worships her.
The reading on Wednesday felt particularly special. Due to a mix-up with the ticket sales, many more people had decided to attend than the arranged bookshop location could accommodate, so Tempest had spent the morning rushing around the streets of Bath to find a new venue. Luckily, the good people of Christ Church took her in, and provided her with a dramatic venue which added a whole new level of grandeur and performance to the evening.
Tempest began her reading with a pre-emptive apology, now that some of her material suddenly felt inappropriate given the setting, before launching into her 35-minute-long epic poem Tiresias. Her performance was mesmerising, and the time flew past as she drew the audience into her wonderfully crafted tale of mythology, love, and pain. When she finished there was a silence, almost reverant, before the room exploded into applause. This was to be the pattern for the evening, although none of the other poems were quite as long as the first.
All too soon her time was up, and there were cries of dismay from the audience as she announced that she was to perform her last poem. Except, when she finished that poem, she didn’t stop. With a shout to the people of the church at the back that she wanted to do one more, she garnered the support of the audience, and even if they’d wanted to (and I doubt they did), the volunteers who’d given over their space for her would have been powerless to stop her.
So she climbed into the pulpit.
Kate Tempest ascended into the pulpit and performed her final poem Progress from above, decrying the state of the world today, starting with a mention of religion (causing some people to look nervously over their shoulders at the Reverend at the back) and then tearing through capitalism, greed and the media. It was an explosive end to the evening, leaving most of the audience in tears as they leapt to their feet to give her a standing ovation.
Honestly, if Kate Tempest doesn’t win the Mercury, it’ll be a tragedy.
Hold Your Own is on sale now.
Her epic narrative poem ‘Brand New Ancients’, for which she won the Ted Hughes award in 2013, is available to listen to on YouTube
Article image credit: David Jensen/Empics Entertainment