Divisible by Itself and One: Kae Tempest

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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. It’s poems about human relations, and the human condition are underlain and, at times, filled with anger.

Questions of integrity - hence the prime number of the title - are addressed in direct, affecting terms: how can we be true to ourselves while under constant pressure to conform? I always feel galvanised, inspired and in awe after seeing them totally immersed in their craft and passion. Questions of integrity – hence the prime number of the title – are addressed in direct, affecting terms: how can we be true to ourselves while under constant pressure to conform? They 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. Divisible by Itself and One is the powerful new collection from our foremost truth-teller Kae Tempest.Divisible by Itself and One is also a book about human form, the body as boundary and how we are read by the world. Infused with all of their rich lyrical skill and unforgettable imagery, Tempest's bravura collection mines themes of transformation, identity and reaction against conformity with unparalleled insight and verve.

For now it feels like a process of reaching a sense of identification and acceptance through an undoing and a letting go. As with most poetry collection, there were some poems I liked better than others and I do think I like some of Tempest's other works better, but this was still very good and very powerful! I read Kae Tempest 's novel The Bricks That Built the Houses a while ago and it is still up there with my favourites. I think I will read whatever Kae Tempest will publish, even though the poems in this collection didn’t speak to me as much as their previous work. 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.

Everyone needs to hear and feel the raw sometimes, and these collections always manage the reflection without the melancholy - more stating as a fact but without burying the pain purposefully deep or out of reach. 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. Their debut novel, "The Bricks That Built The Houses", sold in a highly competitive auction to Bloomsbury and was published in territories including the UK, US, France, Holland and Brazil in Spring 2015.