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Sophia Thakur

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Somebody Give This Heart a Pen Kindle Edition

by Sophia Thakur (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.7 141 ratings

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In a powerful debut, rising star Sophia Thakur brings her spoken word performance to the page.

Be with yourself for a moment.
Be yourself for a moment.
Airplane mode everything but yourself for a moment.

From acclaimed performance poet Sophia Thakur comes a stirring collection of coming-of-age poems exploring issues of identity, difference, perseverance, relationships, fear, loss, and joy. From youth to school to family life to falling in love and falling back out again—the poems draw on the author’s experience as a young mixed-race woman trying to make sense of a lonely and complicated world. With a strong narrative voice and emotional empathy, this is poetry that will resonate with all young people, whatever their background and whatever their dreams.

Print length

111 pages
Language

English
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Publisher

Candlewick Press
Publication date

September 8, 2020
Reading age

14 - 17 years
Grade level

9 - 12
File size

12330 KB
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 9 Up-In this debut collection first published in the UK, performance poet Thakur explores identity, family, loss, relationships, vulnerability, empowerment, and self-discovery. At once intimate and universal, aching and affirming, the poems examine the cycles of breaking, healing, and growth that shape people through young adulthood and beyond. The poems vary in length from a few lines to a few pages, and they beg to be read aloud even as they invite introspection. In several poems, Thakur directly addresses the reader. Throughout the collection, she revisits themes that many young adults will find relevant and familiar, including the closeness and distance of family, the evolution of relationships, what it means to know one another, the ways in which life can both soften and sharpen people, and finding oneself in moments of stillness. In one poem, Thakur extends an invitation: "When you're not feeling your world, / come into mine." Readers will almost certainly want to, time and again. VERDICT An affecting poetry collection for all teens that deserves a spot in school and public libraries.-Lauren Strohecker, McKinley Elem. Sch., Elkins Park, PAα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Review

In this debut collection first published in the UK, performance poet Thakur explores identity, family, loss, relationships, vulnerability, empowerment, and self-discovery. At once intimate and universal, aching and affirming, the poems examine the cycles of breaking, healing, and growth that shape people through young adulthood and beyond...An affecting poetry collection for all teens that deserves a spot in school and public libraries.
—School Library Journal (starred review)

The torrent of Thakur’s spoken word poetry storms the page to flow, feed, and flood in this thunderous debut with broad reader appeal. Thakur, who is of Indian, Sri Lankan, and Gambian descent, offers a love letter to Black and brown readers that offers, at once, the intimacy of the self exposed and the universal power of story shared. A deluge of verse to dance in.
—Kirkus Reviews

This poetry collection, broken into five sections, mirrors generally the process of personal growth: grow, wait, break, and grow again. Woven into the collection are affirmations of Black girlhood, coping with breakups, reflecting on past hurt, and growing from old mistakes...It is this exploration that will resonate with teen readers who search for stanzas to narrate the intensity of their lives, and offer reprieve when it feels there is none.
—Booklist

In her debut poetry collection, Thakur explores love, family, and the challenges and joys of being a Black woman in contemporary Britain...The collection is most powerful in its odes to Black girlhood: “Little black girl, my heart thrives in the stride of your halo.” Offering particular nourishment for young Black women, this raw, heartfelt collection will resonate with all readers seeking a lyrical meditation on the journey to heal from heartache.
—Publishers Weekly Online

About the Author

Sophia Thakur has been performing since the age of sixteen and has a wide reach across social media. She has presented two TED Talks and has worked closely with young people, sharing her poems and the creative process. Somebody Give This Heart a Pen is her first published collection. She lives in Middlesex, England.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

. . . the process
Before place, before time.
Before God separated the water from the skies.
Before factories, before machines, before money, before screens.
Before the internet, before iPhones. Before you and before me.
It was vacant.
And from this empty all there was to do was grow.
And so we did. And then we waited.
We waited to see how things would unfold.
We listened to how many stories were told.
We watched and saw how things could flow,
how they could change
and they could burn.
How things got better while things got worse.
So we began to pray and we learned to break.

We broke to let the light in. Broke to let it out.
Broke and waited for the right thing to fill tired skins out.
We broke to break and broke to heal. Broke to feel alive
and broke to just feel. Broke to humble and we broke to build.
Broke to take. Broke to give. Broke to forget and broke to fix.
From fixing we learned and from learning came life.
Came reasons to go and more reasons to try.
But more than that, from breaking we know that though
we shed, we can always regrow.
Always reseed.
Always restart.
This is the natural process of a heart.

This book mirrors the process.
The building, the breaking, the learning and recreating.
Your skin turns inside out.
Each limb becomes a heart.
Bloody body parts across plain paper.
Find some Is to dot and Ts to cross
until the mess resembles poetry.
Read yourself between pages.
Learn to speak heart.

sugarcane is sweetest at its joint
if a child washes his hands, he may eat with kings
it takes a village
to raise a child
wood already touched by f ire is not
hard to set alight
a wise man who knows proverbs
can reconcile all difficulties
it is better to walk than curse the road
medicine left in the bottle can’t help
laugh at the end
an axe does not cut down a tree by itself
GROW
if you can walk, you can dance;
if you can talk, you can sing
no one can uproot the tree which God has planted
where you will sit when
you are old shows where you
stood in youth
when you stand with the blessings of your mother
and God, it matters not who stands against you
dube ñinilaa ni fitiroo benta
the searcher for the shade will make the dusk
other people’s wisdom
prevents the king from
being called a fool
rising early makes the road short
around a flowering tree there are many insects

Somebody Give This Heart a Pen
Try it all at home.
Try it at school
At university
In the ofﬁce
On the corner of the street that your father lives on,
you never visit.
Beneath your lover’s window
next to the years you left there.
In the shower
to your song
Inside the rain
Under the sun
Inside the night
Between the days

Try to find space to hear what your heart says
Make it your best friend
Slow down and clock back into yourself

Give your heart a pen.

Picking a Name
Ignore those scared by your potential
Those who snigger while you ﬁgure your path
Ignore when they try to bring out the past in you
What matters is not what you are called
But what you answer to.

Rise to You
With every tomorrow
and next time
and one day
and soon come
the sun grows tired of our waiting,
our excuses and entitled patience,
our confidence in the second chance
that forever holds us from taking one.

What if one day the night never comes
and the sun holds the sky hostage
and acted-upon aspirations are the price to pay
for night to ever come again?
How many twenty-fours would it take
to give action to these ideas?

Pump action into you
whether it’s making that call or making that plan
the sun shines brightest on those who stand.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B085FSQVPP
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Candlewick Press (September 8, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 8, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 12330 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Not enabled
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 111 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,457,096 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #157 in Teen & Young Adult Nonfiction on Girls' & Women's Issues
- #196 in Teen & Young Adult Poetry eBooks
- #216 in Teen & Young Adult Inspirational & Personal Growth eBooks

Customer Reviews:
4.7 141 ratings

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Quin

SO AMAZING!!!!

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2021

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I have a new favorite author. This girl is amazing. The rawness is through the roof, with lots of femininity and style. She's a true natural. I truly enjoyed reading this, and I thank her for writing that for us.

One person found this helpful

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Eden

Powerful and gorgeous

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2020

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I’m not usually one for poetry so I don’t have the proper language to really describe this book of poetry. However, what I can say is it powerful and beautifully written. I can hear the cadence of the little slam poetry I am familiar with and loved it. I only wish I could have listened to this because I feel it would have made it even more incredible.

One person found this helpful

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Jessica

Powerful collection!

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2020

I received an ARC of this book for free from the publisher (Candlewick Press) in exchange for an honest review.

This book of poetry was written by a performance poet and it shows!

I’ve never read a collection by a performance poet before, so it took a little getting used to at first. But once I got the hang of it, I loved it! Just reading the poems on paper doesn’t do it justice. I actually ended up watching some of her performances on YouTube, including a few of the poems from this book. She really is a talent!

I had a lot of favorites, especially from the Break section. My favorites were:

-Excerpt from a Letter to My Little Black Girl (pg 12)
-the leaders won’t (pg 23)
-Fearmongering (pg 25)
-Risky Nostalgia (pg 41)
-How We Got Here, Part 20 (pg 49)
-Whipped on You (pg 54)
-Trust Issues (pg 58)
-Slow Sky, Move On By (pg 63)
-Scary Everyone (pg 64)
-Fidgeting (pg 66)
-Let Hurt (pg 68)
-from God (pg 81)
-When to Write (pg 98)

I loved how authentic her poems felt. I could feel her emotions and experiences very vividly. I liked that some of the poems touched upon being black in the UK. In “the leaders won’t,” she name checks Black British people (Damilola, Stephen Lawrences, and Mark Duggan specifically) who were all killed in racially motivated attacks. #BlackLivesMatter everywhere. Being an American I had not heard of these deaths before so I’m so glad she said their names.

Overall, this was a phenomenal collection and I look forward to seeing what else Sophia Thakur puts out.

3 people found this helpful

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Savannah Facchina

It was enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2020

Poetry collections are always hit or miss with me, especially with more recently published ones. But this one, Somebody Give This Heart a Pen, was definitely a hit. You could feel the emotions behind each and every poem. They weren’t just pretty words written in incomplete sentences on a page—compared to some other poetry collections I’ve read. It contains poems about race, family, mental health, growing up, and discovering one’s self. I’ve marked and highlighted this collection so much. Many poems that I just really loved.
A few of my favorites include:
Excerpt from a Letter to My Little Black Girl; page 12
Fearmongering; page 25
Grandma, If You Can Hear; page 29
Foreverlove?; page 39
Risky Nostalgia; page 41
When the Strong Friend Cries; page 44
DIY Romance; page 86

Reviewed in the United States on April 30, 2022

I originally took this collection out from my local library. After reading just the first few poems and skimming through the rest I immediately ordered it from Amazon and returned it to the library. I just had to OWN this collection of raw lyrics.

I don’t know how to review a book because for each person and author is personal, like a song. But I can say that I knew I would want to take my time with this book and know that it was on my shelf whenever I wanted to step into her world again.

ps: I’m 42 so either I’m just a big teen or perhaps this book is for all ages!

Helpful

L. A. Saloiye

Great for all YA collections

Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2020

I am a YA librarian and bought this for my collection due to the title and the reviews. When it arrived and I was reviewing it, I honestly had a hard time putting it down. The lines are simple, profound and moving. So many think they have to know intense vocabulary to write good poetry- but this book shows you can get to the heart of something clearly without being pretentious. Loved it! I have to read one or two and just dwell there for a bit to let it sink in.

I will definitely be recommending patrons read this and watch her YouTube performances as well.

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020

Was a beautiful quick read. Body positive and world positive. Really eye opening to what is currently going on in the world and what we can perhaps do differently to chance the way those we think of ourselves. Highly encourage. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Helpful

Libby Bergstrom

Poem that beg to be performed

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2020

I like poetry, but don't often read a full book of poems. However, after hearing Sophia Thakur perform at an ALA online event, I was drawn to her words and her story. Here is the challenge for me in reviewing this book. The poems really do beg to be spoken aloud, and having heard Thakur perform several poems, I could read them in her voice. But, I'm not sure I would have enjoyed the book as much without having first heard them. So, my advice to readers: get the book but also seek out videos of Thakur performing. Recommended for teen readers who will appreciate the intensity of her emotional reactions to life.

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Top reviews from other countries

Liam Xavier

An impeccable collection from one of Britain's best spoken word poets.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2020

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Sophia Thakur was one of my first introductions to Spoken Word Poetry. I had been obsessed with written for many years but after seeing one of her videos quite a few years ago now, I discovered the allure and endless creativity that comes with the style.
_____

"Give This Heart A Pen" is her first foray into a full collection of written poetry and brings all the slick, stunning and punchy poetry of her spoken pieces. Her ability to vocalise with rhythm and eloquence translates perfectly onto the page and you can tell just how natural Thakur's craft has become.
______

Her years as a fantastic performer, and arguably a pioneer of a new generational style, have afforded her an undeniable distinctiveness to her voice and tone. The book takes aim at race relations, female empowerment and equality, love and heartbreak and should be used as a reference point for many a current discussion.
______
"Give This Heart A Pen" is more than worth the read and to have on the shelf as a dictionary of pain, passion, fervent faith and motivation 🙏👏Can't wait to hear and read more from Sophia ❤️

3 people found this helpful

Mev

A step in the right direction

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 13, 2020

Verified Purchase

Give this book a chance! Her voice is young and fresh; it dips into both the past and the future in the same breath and is the best kind of easily digestible poetry. She makes you reflect while simultaneously giving you hope; hope that the understanding and representation you craved as a young woman of colour is finally starting to permeate our youth. Helps you settle into your brown skin and feminine power. I'll give this book, and books like this, to my daughter if I ever have one. It gets a permanent place on the shelf.

One person found this helpful

Chloe

Love this book!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 19, 2021

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Loved this book so much, originally bought as a gift and ended up reading the whole book before gifting it.

Great selection of short poems, definitely recommend for everyone not just poem lovers!

One person found this helpful

manasha

Best read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 10, 2020

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Love it, it’s such a special book

Tanra

What a talent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2019

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I am amazed at the talent of Sophia Thakur. Her writing is so inspiring especially to the younger generation. It is intelligent and current to modern issues today.

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From School Library Journal

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About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

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About the author

Sophia Thakur

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