She was an award-winning journalist and author with more than 40 books under her belt.
Jan Morris, who has died at the age of 94, was one the finest writers the UK has produced in the post-war era.
Her life story was crammed with romance, discovery and adventure. She was a soldier, an award-winning journalist, a novelist and – as a travel writer – became a poet of time and place.
She was also known as a pioneer in her personal life, as one of the first high-profile figures to change gender. Continue reading →
When everything is fluid, and when nothing can be known with any certainty Hold your own
Hold it ’til you feel it there As dark, and dense, and wet as earth As vast, and bright, and sweet as air When all there is Is knowing that you feel what you are feeling Hold your own
Ask your hands to know the things they hold I know the days are reeling past in such squealing blasts But stop for breath and you will know it’s yours Swaying like an open door when storms are coming Hold
Time is an onslaught Love is a mission We work for vocation until In remission We wish we’d had patience and given more time to our children
Feel each decision that you make Make it, hold it Hold your own Hold your lovers Hold their hands Hold their breasts in your hands, like your hands were their bras Hold their face in your palms like a prayer Hold them all night, feel them hold back Don’t hold back Hold your own
Every pain Every grievance Every stab of shame Every day spent with a demon in your brain giving chase Hold it
Know the wolves that hunt you In time, they will be the dogs that bring your slippers Love them right and you will feel them kiss you when they come to bite Hhot snouts digging out your cuddles with their bloody muzzles Hold
Nothing you can buy will ever make you more whole This whole thing thrives on us feeling always incomplete And it is why we will search for happiness in whatever thing it is we crave in the moment And it is why we can never really find it there It is why you will sit there with the lover that you fought for In the car you sweated years to buy Wearing the ring you dreamed of all your life And some part of you will still be unsure that this is what you really want Stop craving Hold your own
But if you’re satisfied with where you’re at, with who you are You won’t need to buy new make-up, or new outfits, or new pots and pans To cook new exciting recipes For new exciting people To make yourself feel like the new exciting person, you think you’re supposed to be
Happiness, the brand, is not happiness We are smarter than they think we are They take us all for idiots But that’s their problem When we behave like idiots It becomes our problem
So hold your own Breathe deep on a freezing beach Taste the salt of friendship Notice the movement of a stranger Hold your own And let it be Catching
THE HOBBLEDEHOY loves Kate Tempest and now we love Kae. Here’s Kae’s latest message from her Facebook:
Hello old fans, new fans and passers by – I’m changing my name! And I’m changing my pronouns. From Kate to Kae. From she/her to they/them. I’ve been struggling to accept myself as I am for a long time. I have tried to be what I thought others wanted me to be so as not to risk rejection. This hiding from myself has led to all kinds of difficulties in my life. And this is a first step towards knowing and respecting myself better. I’ve loved Kate. But I am beginning a process and I hope you’ll come with me. From today – I will be publishing my books and releasing my music as Kae Tempest! It’s pronounced like the letter K. It’s an old English word that means jay bird. Jays are associated with communication, curiosity, adaptation to new situations and COURAGE which is the name of the game at the moment. It can also mean jackdaw which is the bird that symbolises death and rebirth. Ovid said the jackdaw brought the rain. Which I love. It has its roots in the Latin word for rejoice, be glad and take pleasure. And I hope to live more that way each day. Funny because I know this is much more of a big deal to me than it is to anyone else, but because of my role as artist, it is in some ways a public decision as well as being a private one. So, here is my announcement. Sending my love to you all and wishing you courage as you face whatever you must face today. This is a time of great reckoning. Privately, locally, globally. For me, the question is no longer ‘when will this change’ but ‘how far am I willing to go to meet the changes and bring them about in myself.’ I want to live with integrity. And this is a step towards that. Sending LOVE always
Welcome to The Scotsman Sessions. With the performing arts world shutting down for the foreseeable future, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman.com, with introductions from our critics. Here, he award-winning poet Kathleen Jamie reads two poems about the natural world, “An Avowal” and “Fianuis”
English rapper and spoken-word artist, Kate Tempest, dropped her new single, “Unholy Elixir,” on Jan. 27. This new song is a reworking of her song “Holy Elixir,” which was featured on her third studio album, Book of Traps and Lessons.
“This is “Unholy Elixir,” said Tempest. “After a year of touring, we discovered new things about the song, and wanted to make a version that reflected those discoveries.”
From the first few seconds, it is evident the new single is superior to her previously released version of the song. The synth and buzzing sound added to the track gives a full feeling for the song, and the shallow yet powerful beats set the tone of the song.
The newly added synth and reproduced beats give an entirely new feel to the lyrics of the song, and the animated video made for the song visually impacts the music. To watch the animation of the city set on fire, and the humans transforming into bird-like humanoids was very visually pleasing.
“We are divisions of a bigger vision,” Tempest poetically raps. “And yet we run around like hamsters, spinning the wheel, spinning the wheel, spinning the wheel.
The song ends with a creepy synth, completed by a classic beat. As the song fades out, it leaves the listener wondering when she will be releasing her next.
Last year in October Tempest released an animated music video for her song “People’s Faces.” The track highlights the singer’s political themes and discusses the pain and agony of those whom are directly facing poverty and oppression.
Tempest is set to play on Feb. 18, at the Melbourne Recital Centre, in Melbourne, AUS. There has been no information released on a possible upcoming album.
She was an award-winning journalist and author with more than 40 books under her belt.
