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Into Temptation
Into Temptation is the debut collection of poems from Sophia Blackwell, a regular on the UK poetry scene who has been holding crowds spellbound for over five years in bars, nightclubs, and festival tents.
Sophia takes us through love in all its guises – burning obsession, one-night stands that last too long, domestic bliss, and the insecurities in even the most loving relationships. Here also is a series of elegies for the everyday - the quiet, mysterious pleasures of Tube journeys, cats, and spaghetti sauce.
Into Temptation is all lipstick, corsets and hedonistic jazz-fuelled rhythms, raging against and revelling in life.
Sophia takes us through love in all its guises – burning obsession, one-night stands that last too long, domestic bliss, and the insecurities in even the most loving relationships. Here also is a series of elegies for the everyday - the quiet, mysterious pleasures of Tube journeys, cats, and spaghetti sauce.
Into Temptation is all lipstick, corsets and hedonistic jazz-fuelled rhythms, raging against and revelling in life.
- GenresPoetry
80 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
About the author
Sophia Blackwell
8 books10 followersSophia Blackwell was born in Newcastle and read English at Oxford. She lives in North London and has been performing poetry for almost a decade and has featured at Glastonbury, Edinburgh, the Big Chill and the Secret Garden Party among many other festivals.
Her debut collection of poetry, Into Temptation, was published in 2009 by Tollington Press and her first novel, After My Own Heart, was published by Limehouse Books in March 2012. Her short stories are featured in the gay and lesbian anthologies Boys and Girls and Men and Women. Her second collection of poetry is publishing in Spring 2015.
Her debut collection of poetry, Into Temptation, was published in 2009 by Tollington Press and her first novel, After My Own Heart, was published by Limehouse Books in March 2012. Her short stories are featured in the gay and lesbian anthologies Boys and Girls and Men and Women. Her second collection of poetry is publishing in Spring 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
November 26, 2009
Every one of these words rings true and glows like burning coal
“Gay Rage was my teenage agenda,
my mates talking race, class and gender.
We’d get in frantic states
and semantic debates
when some poof called some gaylord a bender.”
This is my current favourite excerpt from Into Temptation, a collection of 27 poems by open-mic regular Sophia Blackwell. Described in her own words as a “performance poet, cabaret vamp, burlesque wannabe, feminist lesbian warrior princess and Italian pasta-momma” - all I can add is to say if they taught poets like this in schools, I’d never have to cringe when that conversation comes along and I admit that what I like to write ‘actually, kind of includes, um...’ (gulp) ‘poetry.’
Treading a brilliant line between the tender and the gutsy, Into Temptation is split into three sections: Mad Love, No Angels and Ordinary Joys. It has a wealth of experience in life and love, a devil-may-care attitude which glows through the collection, and an anger directed in all the right places. I’d challenge anyone to not fall a little bit in love with this book.
Sophia Blackwell is an accomplished performer, and having seen her live a few times I occasionally wasn’t sure if I was enjoying the words on the page so much as the live delivery I could imagine as I read them – but either way the influence of having honed these in front of live audiences is apparent: these poems are tried, tested and the rhymes and flows are polished to a sheen. In ‘Wilderness Years’ the sheer verbal feats, let alone what they express, are thrilling:
“I like when this world in its hugeness astounds me,
amuses me, bruises me, screws and confounds me.
I smile as its brutal great beauty surrounds me
I’m free in these wilderness years.”
In the few poems which didn’t make me grin from ear to ear, the sheer skill involved was breathtaking, such in ‘Paris in the Spring’ which with tells one story one way, but then repeats with the order of the lines reversed, telling a completely different story. Pieces such as ‘Wilderness Years’ or ‘Red Dress Blues’ have an almost anthemic feel about them – a neat summation and celebration of life for the generation of women that has no intention of waiting until they are old to start wearing purple. Or red:
“I don’t give a damn what the preacher said,
I’m reeling from a night in a stranger’s bed,
that face above me like a figurehead.
My dress has to be red.”
Singing out from this collection is an epic personality. The type whose quips should be immortalised in amongst the quotes from Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker and Mae West. Calling all smart bookish girls aged seventeen or under: throw away your Frieda Kahlo postcards and your dreary Sylvia Plath: I’ve found someone better. All those of drinking age – catch her at a poetry night sometime soon.
This review originally appeared on Fat Quarter Ezine: http://www.fat-quarter.co.uk/archives...
“Gay Rage was my teenage agenda,
my mates talking race, class and gender.
We’d get in frantic states
and semantic debates
when some poof called some gaylord a bender.”
This is my current favourite excerpt from Into Temptation, a collection of 27 poems by open-mic regular Sophia Blackwell. Described in her own words as a “performance poet, cabaret vamp, burlesque wannabe, feminist lesbian warrior princess and Italian pasta-momma” - all I can add is to say if they taught poets like this in schools, I’d never have to cringe when that conversation comes along and I admit that what I like to write ‘actually, kind of includes, um...’ (gulp) ‘poetry.’
Treading a brilliant line between the tender and the gutsy, Into Temptation is split into three sections: Mad Love, No Angels and Ordinary Joys. It has a wealth of experience in life and love, a devil-may-care attitude which glows through the collection, and an anger directed in all the right places. I’d challenge anyone to not fall a little bit in love with this book.
Sophia Blackwell is an accomplished performer, and having seen her live a few times I occasionally wasn’t sure if I was enjoying the words on the page so much as the live delivery I could imagine as I read them – but either way the influence of having honed these in front of live audiences is apparent: these poems are tried, tested and the rhymes and flows are polished to a sheen. In ‘Wilderness Years’ the sheer verbal feats, let alone what they express, are thrilling:
“I like when this world in its hugeness astounds me,
amuses me, bruises me, screws and confounds me.
I smile as its brutal great beauty surrounds me
I’m free in these wilderness years.”
In the few poems which didn’t make me grin from ear to ear, the sheer skill involved was breathtaking, such in ‘Paris in the Spring’ which with tells one story one way, but then repeats with the order of the lines reversed, telling a completely different story. Pieces such as ‘Wilderness Years’ or ‘Red Dress Blues’ have an almost anthemic feel about them – a neat summation and celebration of life for the generation of women that has no intention of waiting until they are old to start wearing purple. Or red:
“I don’t give a damn what the preacher said,
I’m reeling from a night in a stranger’s bed,
that face above me like a figurehead.
My dress has to be red.”
Singing out from this collection is an epic personality. The type whose quips should be immortalised in amongst the quotes from Noel Coward, Dorothy Parker and Mae West. Calling all smart bookish girls aged seventeen or under: throw away your Frieda Kahlo postcards and your dreary Sylvia Plath: I’ve found someone better. All those of drinking age – catch her at a poetry night sometime soon.
This review originally appeared on Fat Quarter Ezine: http://www.fat-quarter.co.uk/archives...
September 5, 2012
I wouldn’t normally read a poetry book from cover to cover, I’d normal flick to a random page and let fate speak to me through lines of poetry but with this collection I started at the beginning and read through to the end in a couple of days because each one was so easy to read and had something interesting to say, I enjoyed the collection a lot.
This collection is split into three parts: Love, No Angels, and Ordinary Joys, my favourite by far being Love, but that’s hardly a surprise as I’m obsessed by this grand emotion. The way the simple joys of love are brought into these poems with specific modern details. Duvet days are referenced along with weddings and commitment or the lack of.
A poem that stood out for me and I happened to share with a few friends one lunchtime – very sophis. me - was ‘Don’t Tell Me the Truth About Love’. I loved this when I saw it performed and so could hear Sophia’s voice when I read which makes it a million time better, ‘So don’t tell me’ resonating in my mind.
A lot of these poems are about hiding behind your strong front, keeping up a facade of no feelings and just pleasure but really below you’re soft and being unwrapped with love – this is especially evident in ‘Cover’. As someone who’s been called an ice queen on countless occasions I like being able to show the inner and outer contrasting feelings in the poem and these poems reveal this with such stylistic ease.
If you want to hear Sophia read her work, then, go watch her ... or YouTube her ... that’s the same?! I had never heard of her in 2011 and the first poem I heard her read as she came on in her heels and summer dress was 'Red Dress Blues' it instantly gave me an impression of a woman with an amazing 'fuck it' attitude that I wish I had. Interesting poem of power but also seeming so very fragile.
Oh, oh, one more that I love, and then I’ve covered one from each section of the collection, how thorough of me! But really I just want to mention it because it’s so great that poetry can be so fun and frivolous but still so strong in it’s from; ‘Hair’ is about what you think it would be about, well, hair. When a poet rhymes ‘So there!’ at you in the last line, you’ve got to love her.
In all, to my friends who ask me what I’m reading and then groan when I say poetry, I say to you Drop your epics and read a bit of Sophia, you won’t be disappointed.
This collection is split into three parts: Love, No Angels, and Ordinary Joys, my favourite by far being Love, but that’s hardly a surprise as I’m obsessed by this grand emotion. The way the simple joys of love are brought into these poems with specific modern details. Duvet days are referenced along with weddings and commitment or the lack of.
A poem that stood out for me and I happened to share with a few friends one lunchtime – very sophis. me - was ‘Don’t Tell Me the Truth About Love’. I loved this when I saw it performed and so could hear Sophia’s voice when I read which makes it a million time better, ‘So don’t tell me’ resonating in my mind.
A lot of these poems are about hiding behind your strong front, keeping up a facade of no feelings and just pleasure but really below you’re soft and being unwrapped with love – this is especially evident in ‘Cover’. As someone who’s been called an ice queen on countless occasions I like being able to show the inner and outer contrasting feelings in the poem and these poems reveal this with such stylistic ease.
If you want to hear Sophia read her work, then, go watch her ... or YouTube her ... that’s the same?! I had never heard of her in 2011 and the first poem I heard her read as she came on in her heels and summer dress was 'Red Dress Blues' it instantly gave me an impression of a woman with an amazing 'fuck it' attitude that I wish I had. Interesting poem of power but also seeming so very fragile.
Oh, oh, one more that I love, and then I’ve covered one from each section of the collection, how thorough of me! But really I just want to mention it because it’s so great that poetry can be so fun and frivolous but still so strong in it’s from; ‘Hair’ is about what you think it would be about, well, hair. When a poet rhymes ‘So there!’ at you in the last line, you’ve got to love her.
In all, to my friends who ask me what I’m reading and then groan when I say poetry, I say to you Drop your epics and read a bit of Sophia, you won’t be disappointed.
September 2, 2016
I went straight through cover to cover, reading some out loud as they are so fun and harrowing and joyful and full of all the feelings.
Very structured but also modern and fresh and enlivening.
I really liked this collection. 5 stars.
Very structured but also modern and fresh and enlivening.
I really liked this collection. 5 stars.
May 24, 2012
A fabulous collection of contemporary poetry by the enihmatic Sophia Blackwell. Recommended!
March 14, 2014
Great to have these poems in printed form after seeing her perform them
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews