Kae Tempest — Photo-Artistry by kenne from a Photo by Wolfgang Tillmans
A couple of years ago, I posted: “I’m a new fan of Kae Tempest, an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist, and playwright — a great performer by any measure. Then, in January 2022,
I did a post on Kae’s latest book, “On Connections,” in which they extolled the importance of finding meanings in the little things.
Like most people, when I first hear about an artist, I feel like I was the one who discovered the artist.
So, I was both surprised and pleased to learn about Kae’s appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight Show this past Monday.
Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest) — Source: scenestr.com
I’m a new fan of Kae Tempest, an English spoken word performer, poet, recording artist, novelist, and playwright — a great performer by any measure.
— kenne
People’s Faces
[Verse 1] It’s coming to pass, my country’s coming apart The whole thing’s becoming such a bumbling farce Was that a pivotal historical moment we just went stumbling past? Well, here we are, dancing in the rumbling dark So come a little closer, give me something to grasp Give me your beautiful, crumbling heart Another disaster, catharsis Another half-discarded mirage Another mask slips I face off with the physical My head’s ringing from the love of the stars There is too much pretense here Too much depends on the fragile wages And extortionate rents here We’re working every dread day that is given us Feeling like the person people meet really isn’t us Like we’re gonna buckle underneath the trouble Like any minute now, the struggle’s going to finish us And then we smile at all our friends (Click Here for all Verses)
“People don’t choose dreams. Dreams chose them. So the question I’m getting to is,
do you have the courage to grab the dream that picked you?
That befits you and grips you?”
Look,
There’s a spider.
A good year for spiders
Or so and so seems,
Incessantly weaving
Such gossamer schemes.
Should make one wonder
What blueprint within
Instinctively causes
The spider to spend?
Look, look how lovely
The glim to the sun
Is gracing with highlights
The web being spun.
Dear god of all spiders
Please hear this small prayer,
Is spidery heaven
One infinite snear?
Will, there be gravity
So food will fall by?
Have you ever tasted
A bluebottle fly?
Never had scorpion
Do they have a god?
Tics you might fancy
The flavor is odd.
But not quite as odd
As gregarious nats
Who fly into trouble
When ravaness bats,
Senses all heightened
Go Dracula stark
And quick eat up tasty
Lost nats in the dark.
I wonder if spiders
would like eating mites,
Those juicy small monsters
Who louse up the night
Of asthmatic sleepers
Allergic to waste.
Spiders might like mites
and get used to the taste.
Spiders do what they must
In spidering nets,
Intrinsic insiders
Who cover all bets
With polymer silver
That they gossamer spend
And wait, and wait
For some dinner
That soon may drop in.
Yea, a good year for spiders.
“. . . they wanna paint you the color of smashed hymens.” Holy shit.”
Poet Kavindu “Kavi” Ade performing a spoken-word piece called “IT” at the Brave New Voices 2010. This poem deals with gender identity and anti-trans hate, and watching Ade perform is an intense, emotional experience. (WARNING! Some may find this passion offensive.)
A Spoken Word Event (04/24/04) — Image by kenne
A Good Year For Spiders — Photo-Artistry by kenne
Becoming is Superior to Being 