Hello everyone! I tried to do a pretty
braid today but it just all fell out all at once so I
guess we're just going for the ropey
look. Today I wanted to do a mini review
of a book that I just picked up and it is
Keaton Henson's book Idiot Verse. My friend
Karissa sent this to me just for
funsies and she knows I love Keaton
Henson so she just sent this my way and
it was such an enjoyable read. I really wanna
get to talking about it but first, have
to thank Karissa for sending this to me so thank
you Karissa! I loved it! If you're unaware,
Keaton Henson is a singer. I really don't
know how to describe the genre other
than, like, acoustic, very relaxing, soft
but depressing music. It's what I play
whenever I read or write or-- it's very
contemplative and quiet and soothing
music. He writes about relationships and
love and heartbreak and being an artist
and I think the reason why I love him so
much other than the quality of his music
is that he has severe social
anxiety which prevents him from being
able to play many concerts. So first of
all, he writes about anxiety in his music
which just speaks to me because I have
anxiety. He used to record his music in
his room and he released it that way. So
getting fame has made him a little bit
uncomfortable. So the fact that he has
released this and given us more, like,
more things that I crave? I'm just
ecstatic about. So I read this in one
sitting. All these poems are about
relationships and London and his feelings
and longing and desire and it's so
amazing. I want to talk about my deep
thoughts with these. I gave this book
five stars. Hand down. Loved it. So as you
can see, haha, I put a bunch of tabs on the
ones that I enjoyed. All of these are sticky
tabs for poems that I liked a lot,
which is a lot of them. I just think he's
a genius with his lyrics. The way that he
can express something that's so tragic
and just deliver in a way that you're
just, like, punched in the heart; that's
how I feel listening to his music and
that's how I felt reading this. Some
of my favorite songs off his new album
are "The Pugilist," "No Witnesses," and
"Alright," and if you like the lyrics and the
style of those types of songs, then this
book is really going to be your friend. His
writing style is extremely, extremely neat.
Sometimes he'll refer directly to the
person he's discussing in that poem and
call her like, "My dear" or, "My love," or,
"Darling," and it's like an ode to that
person and you can just feel the longing
that he has for this person or the
heartbreak that he's experienced over
this person. And it-- it just punches me in the
guts. It's such a powerful book. I'm not
even going to go through and tell you
which of these were my favorites because it
was like half of them. I just adored this
collection of poems. I do want to mention
that the beginning page of this is a
picture of him, and on this side of the
page it says, "Your life is a book/ it is
more than just the first and last page/
and it is mostly made up of and's and
the's." He makes things so simplistic but
in a way that makes you like, think and
delve into his mindset. I have now become
a fan of writing in books, so a lot of
these stanzas i've underlined. It just makes
me really, really think. I think one of my
favorite poems in here-- I love the poem
"Regret Me." I posted that one on Snapchat
and I was like, "This is literally warnette."
But something that I was not expecting
in this book and that made me so much
more emotional about his writing is that
it is interspersed with his drawings. Keaton
had a graphic novel in 2012 that was
limited edition called Gloaming. I found
out about it too late I couldn't get a copy,
but he is a very interesting artist who--
you can't really see that because the
window is right by me. He has penciled
in art in here that just makes it feel
like this was his personal copy of his
poems and he's just doodling around them. And
his art is a lot of the times
incomprehensible, just sometimes lines or
like this. I don't know that is but just
the way that the pencil strokes are? It's
just so meaningful. Like that sounds so
stupid, I'm like, "Oh, the way that his
pencil looks!" But in reality, like,
I actually-- I can feel what he was
feeling when he drew these and I can
feel what he was feeling when he wrote
these poems and the way that he can just
transfer that emotion from his body and his
soul to a page? And me, thousands of miles
away, I picked this up and I feel that
same heartbreak that he felt? I think he
just has an extravagant talent
for this. And I wish this was 500 pages
long. I'm gonna read a little bit
from "Regret Me" because I think that's one of
the most memorable poems I read. "Who
watches while you dance my dear/who
whispers softly are you well/and softer
still in moonlit spell/i'm lonely my
love, come and save me./Who listens to
your collars turn/your sleeves drip red
as arms and hands/reach desperate for
escaping sands?/I'm lonely my darlings,
don't break me." Just the way that he makes the
rhyme and the flow of it and the imagery.
Everything just works. It's not like
modern poetry where it's just random
skips in lines, but there's images and
there's detail and there's crushing
emotion packed into this. I thought it
was expertly done, will forever be a fan
of Keaton. I'm dying to meet him or see
him one day but I highly doubt that
that's even in the realm of possibility
at this point. If you're a fan of Keaton's
music or if you just want poetry that
really speaks to heartbreak and love and
feeling emotions passionately, this is
gonna be a great option. So I wanted to
thank everyone for watching. Hope you
enjoyed this review! If you're a fan of
Keaton or if you like poetry, let me know
if you have recommendations! I don't know what you
would recommend to me of Keaton's
because I have all his albums and I
love him, but yeah. Poetry recommendations? Let
me know. Let me know if you have any thoughts,
and until next time hope, you all enjoyed
and I'll see you in the future.
Bye everyone!
