A review by devontrevarrowflaherty
Brand New Ancients by

5.0

I read/listened to this poem/book as part of a list of poems in The Times. Here is my brief review of the poem:

Kae/Kate (they/them) Tempest is meant to be heard. They is a renowned spoken word poet, so I would recommend you listen to Brand New Ancients, which runs at over an hour and is a story as much as a poem. I listened to it as I read it, occasionally making notes because it was interesting to see how Tempest had changed things, sometimes in fairly big ways, sometimes an important word, sometimes possibly just a quick change in the reading. I admit to being swept away. I have a thing for innovative art of any form, and perhaps there are many other spoken word story poems like this, but it was both new to me and extremely well done. I suppose I didn’t agree with all of the assertions of the poem (about us being gods and being one, though I think it was meant more metaphorical and literarily) and I also suppose the whole thing was a little gritty for my usual taste, but overall it was breathtaking and beautiful. If you have any sort of love for poetry (which I imagine you do, reading this post), you need to listen to this (at just under an hour and a half). If you read it while you listen, it counts as reading for sure, but this piece is definitely not just writing; it is performance art. I could find some small faults, but it was great as a story, as a poem, and as a performance, and it went beyond a regular old story, looping in all this great allusion and imagery. (See Brand New Ancients (paperback and audiobook))

***REVIEW WRITTEN FOR THE STARVING ARTIST BLOG***