Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56 are weekly memes hosted by Rose City Reader and Freda's Voice.
Rules:
Book Beginnings: Share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
The Friday 56: Grab a book, turn to page 56 or 56% in you eReader. Find any sentence (not spoilery) and reflect on it if you want.
This week – for the first time ever – my Friday post is featuring a poetry collection:
by Kate Tempest
Synopsis:
Kate Tempest, winner of
the Ted Hughes Prize for Brand New Ancients and widely regarded as the
UK's leading spoken word poet, has produced a new poem-sequence of
electrifying power. Based on the myth of the blind prophet Tiresias,
Hold Your Own is a riveting tale of youth and experience, sex and love,
wealth and poverty, community and alienation. Walking in the forest one
morning, a young man disturbs two copulating snakes - and is punished by
the goddess Hera, who turns him into a woman. This is only the
beginning of his journey . . . Weaving elements of classical myth,
autobiography and social commentary, Tempest uses the story of the
gender-switching, clairvoyant Tiresias to create four sequences of
poems: 'childhood', 'manhood', 'womanhood' and 'blind profit'. The
result is a rhythmically hypnotic tour de force - and a hugely ambitious
leap forward for one of the UK's most talented and compelling young
writers.
Book Beginning:
The first verse from the first poem, which is called Teiresias:
Picture a scene:
A boy of fifteen.
With the usual dreams
And the usual routine.
He's so very usual, yet unusual, as it turns out later.
The Friday 56:
From the poem The Old dogs who fought so well:
And I laughed out loud. Because it's always the way – when you are alone
and feeling like you could jump off the edge of the world,
that's when they find you and tell you they all went through the same thing.
And that's how we all survive... holding onto hope, knowing that others have already experienced what we're going through.
How's your reading week going? What are you reading at the moment?
Please leave your Friday link for me below.
