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Running Upon the Wires

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Running Upon the Wires

By: Kae Tempest
Narrated by: Kae Tempest
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About this listen

Running Upon The Wires is Kae Tempest’s first book of free-standing poetry since the acclaimed Hold Your Own. In a beautifully varied series of formal poems, spoken songs, fragments, vignettes and ballads, Tempest charts the heartbreak at the end of one relationship and the joy at the beginning of a new love; but also tells us what happens in between, when the heart is pulled both ways at once.

Running Upon The Wires is, in a sense, a departure from their previous work, and unashamedly personal and intimate in its address – but will also confirm Tempest’s role as one of our most important poetic truth–tellers: it will be no surprise to readers to discover that she’s no less a direct and unflinching observer of matters of the heart than they are of social and political change. Running Upon The Wires is a heartbreaking, moving and joyous book about love, in its endings and in its beginnings.

 Literature & Fiction Love Poetry Themes & Styles

Critic reviews

In terms of visibility, Kate Tempest is currently way ahead of her performance-poet peers. Out on her own, she sounds like a woman who knows exactly what she's doing (Observer)
One of the brightest British talents around. [Tempest's] spoken-word performances have the metre and craft of traditional poetry, the kinetic agitation of hip-hop and the intimacy of a whispered heart-to-heart
Dazzling wordsmithery. . . As anyone who has seen her perform will know, she doesn't just paint pictures with words when she performs, she paints fireworks in the night sky
Tempest’s first book of free-standing poetry since 2014’s Hold Your Own is a whirlwind of formal poems, spoken songs, ballads and fragments. Capturing the total loss at the breakdown of a beloved relationship or the dangers of catching a song on the radio that can floor you in an instant, Tempest uses words like a time traveller taking the reader into fragments of their own lives, successes and heartbreaks. Read and lose yourself in a total adventure.
A cathartic and deeply moving read - a go-to for the love-stricken and heartbroken
Reading from the page, without accompaniment, allows her word-craft to shine.
An honest, witty, mosaic-like view of love in the 21st century. (Roger Cox)
All stars
Most relevant
My mind followed kates through every joyous moment and every painful fall. Would reccomend for all.

Emotional, human.

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I love Kate tempest. I loved this book. the poems are different from her songs but still have her style and eloquence with words.

If I had to describe them it would be honest and beautiful.

loved it

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You do it every time Kate, glad to have you back in town again
JJ

Another masterpiece by the excentral Kate tempest!

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The perfect encapsulation of the ebb and flow of relationships. So empowering to hear the natural beauty of lesbian relationships without patriarchal objectification.

Beautiful

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