Date & Time

by Phil Kaye (Author, Narrator)

Phil Kaye's debut collection is a stunning tribute to growing up, and all of the challenges and celebrations of the passing of time, as jagged as it may be. Kaye takes the reader on a journey from a complex but iridescent childhood, drawing them into adolescence, and finally on to adulthood. There are first kisses, lost friendships, hair blowing in the wind while driving the vastness of an empty road, and the author positioned in the middle, trying to make sense of it all. Readers will find joy and vulnerability, in equal measure. Date & Time is a welcoming story, which freezes the calendar and allows us all to live in our best moments.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Asian Literature, American

2 pages, Audible Audio

First published September 18, 2018

About the author

Raised in a California beach town to a Japanese mother and Jewish-American father, Phil first fell in love with spoken word poetry at age 17. Since then, he has performed in hundreds of venues in fifteen countries. His work has been viewed online over five million times and featured in media outlets ranging from NPR to Al Jazeera America to Upworthy.com. Most recently, Phil was invited to perform alongside His Holiness The Dalai Lama for the celebration of his 80th birthday. He is the co-director of Project VOICE, an organization that uses poetry as tool to promote empowerment, improve literacy, and encourage empathy and creative collaboration in classrooms and communities. Through his work with Project VOICE, Phil has worked hands-on with students of all different ages in over a hundred schools around the world.

Phil is a graduate of Brown University, where he was head coordinator of Space in Prisons for the Arts and Creative Expression (SPACE) and taught weekly poetry workshops in maximum security prisons. He is the two-time recipient of the National College Poetry Slam (CUPSI) award for “Pushing the Art Forward”, given for outstanding innovation in the art of performance poetry – the only person to receive the award both as a performer and coach. His first book, A Light Bulb Symphony, was published in 2011. When not on the road, Phil lives in New York City and spends his time writing new work, using 90′s slang, and quietly wondering to himself what the dealio is.

Reviews

[celine · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I think about how odd it must be to be famous for your sadness"

"I know the nights/ we shatter hourglasses to fall asleep/ the afternoons we take photographs of our shadows/ just to prove we left a mark"

"you watch the sunset too often it just becomes 6 p.m."

"a sudden 2 a.m. fervor born of embracing loneliness or trying to eat it whole"

[Darshita Jain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phil Kaye knows how to use euphemisms. He just does it so effectively that you are caught up in the beauty of his poetry and do not realize how and when the poem hit you the hardest. I come from a broken home and Phil Kaye's utter honesty broke my heart. His book resonated with me on so many levels, and the guilt with which he writes about feeling all he felt, i have never come across that particular emotion, so vividly.

I had been waiting a long time for Phil's book to release and then arrive. It did not disappoint. I carry it everywhere I go. It is phenomenal in its honest and being the master story-teller that Phil is, he navigates laughter, delight and despondence with such elegance, this book was worth the wait.

[Monika Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought i might die before reading this book coz i couldn’t find it anywhere. Now that i've read it, i can die peacefully. 'Succulent ', 'Before the internet' and 'Repetition' most favourite.

[Sara the Book Slayer · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up to 4

Poems I Enjoyed:
Succulent
Camero
Depression
Before the Internet
Sick Day
Song for the Dirt

[Hannibal · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written slam poetry is like lyrics to a song. Most of the time you have to hear it sung to fully appreciate it. But from time to time, a poem, a verse, or a metaphor is so well put together, they speak for themselves. Phil's poems have their moments, less so if you don't take to youtube and listen to them the way they meant to be felt.

[Robbie Deacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t really get poetry but this made me cry and feel feelings so it’s probably good

[Jip · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 sterren; niet elk gedicht raakte me, maar het lukt Phil Kaye wel heel goed om zijn poëzie in een bepaalde sfeer te plaatsen en die sfeer door de hele bundel vast te houden. Knap.

Lieve strofe in ‘Song for the dirt’:

when spring comes again
& the bulbs rise
raising their hand
ready to yell out
their answer to winter
so the whole class can hear


En een stukje uit mijn persoonlijke favoriet ‘Before the internet’, waarin twee vrienden een poging doen tot het beklimmen van een grote boom door touwen door de riemlussen van hun broeken te rijgen en de uiteindes ervan om takken te knopen:

I quietly think, maybe I am Indiana Jones / & Ben quietly thinks, maybe this is a bad idea / & my belt loops quietly think, you fundamentally misunderstand my ability / but we are all thinking quietly / & for a few seconds it is silent / & at nine years old I transform into things I have never been before

[Aquila · Rating 5 out of 5]

Date & Time broke me in the very first poem and then kept on igniting memories through to the end. Family, love, joy, loss, falling, and so much more. Ideas and feelings so tangible you can reach out and touch them, feel their softness against your skin. I teared up a number of times and had to read passages out loud to my partner.

[Maud Weijers · Rating 4 out of 5]

stunning really, not every single one of them hit home for me but the ones that did were really raw and vulnerable and just so wonderfully human. silly little humans with their silly little heartaches and pains and joys and ecstasies and words to express some of those really big feelings with <3

[Rimjhim Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

7

[lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 stars

'I speak to many people
in many places
speak through a microphone
so that I cannot hear anything else'

'he was addicted to my ability
to keep his secrets'

'unkissing my own skin'

[Atika Dunlop · Rating 3 out of 5]

maybe it is unfair of me to expect each and every poem in this collection to knock me out the way ‘camaro’ does, but i was disappointed in how few of them did. i did appreciate how vulnerable the poetry felt, with his meditations on relationships, family and the passing of time remain his strongest works. i thought some attempts at political commentary fell flat in the mix of the otherwise strong theme of time and personal memory. overall it is a promising debut collection.

[Angeline Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites: Succulent, Camaro, Hunt, On Starting, Ferris Wheel, My Grandmother’s Ballroom, Unalienable. This book was a nice day in the swimming pool, but never the ocean.

[Joel Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection was as beautiful as I expected, though it shone a little brighter. Phil has an excellent way of telling a story in poetic form that is lyrical and thought provoking. If he chooses he can take you up to the emotional height of romance then crash you into the horrors of war and do it with such believability and conviction that you don't read it, you live it. Some poetry is only good when the poet reads it out to you in their own voice. Although Phil has the definite intonation of a story teller, it isn't needed to be transported by his words. I am considering this collection to my second favourite of all time. This book has made me fall in love with poetry again.

[Nada Hosny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fell completely in love with like 10 poems?
but couldn't really feel or relate to the other 30 ones.

If you repeat something over and over again it loses its meaning;
You watch the sunset too often it just becomes 6 pm,
you make the same mistake over and over you stop calling it a mistake.
If you just
wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up wake up
one day you’ll forget why

[Karmander · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a while to read this one, I started it at the end of last year and just slowly took it in. This is the first collection of poetry I’ve ever really connected with. Some of the poems, I kept going back to day after day. They were simple but beautiful and I loved his commentary on our connection to the technical world as well as all of his poems surrounding his family. I also loved the structure of this collection, highlighting the fluidity of time and experience and memory.

[Anika · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a about growing up, growing old, nothing, personal anecdotes and personified objects. I think it resembles life, a little closely. It's about Phil's life and all the poems and stories and anecdotes reflect that. It reflects the hope that a child carries, ending up with flames and it screams of disorientation that adulthood carries, sometimes ending with a little hope. The collection of poems carries a variety and a range of topics, not unlike life.

[Kristin Runyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this in 2020 when Button Poetry had its holiday sale (got it autographed) because I liked “My Grandmother’s Ballroom” and had used it in class. But like many of my purchases, this languished on a bookshelf. I grabbed it as my 1st book of 2022 and so glad that I did. What an incredible collection! For my teacher friends—this needs to be in your rotation of collections to teach. The poems are poignant, reflective of aging but in a way that young adults (16-20s) can easily connect to.

[Jou · Rating 5 out of 5]

i still don't know how to rate poetry but i love this collection so much. i see myself coming back to it, time and time again. i am very glad i got a hold of this one :') my favorite at the moment is "my grandma's ballroom"

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a visceral, beautiful collection of words. Phil Kaye is an undeniable talent. He does so much so clearly with few, well-sourced words. You feel them, you taste them, and it is good; it is sad and like a home you recognize but don't fully know.

[Meg Mueller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although not one of my favorite poetry collections, I was fascinated by Kaye's use of time and how the intertwining events of one's past, present, and future can have implications on each other. I felt his use of storytelling to be unique and felt that while as a whole the pieces worked together, each individual piece stood out as mini snapshots and moments of a life that together painted a much larger picture.

While I can appreciate the work, I just don't love it. Kaye is definitely not one of my favorite poets, but I can see where people would be drawn in.

[Sharon Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The amount I cried reading this borders on concerning.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully written. Some lines were so impactful I had to reread them over out loud just to make sure I was appreciating them.

[Kokie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegant and poignant.

[Constantina ✨ · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the structure of his poems tho

my grandmother's mind
was a ballroom
inside were her memories
each one dressed for a celebration

[B K · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Phil Kaye's writing. Several poems were breathtaking and will stay with me a long time.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Whenever I thought it was getting tedious, it got real and tender and fresh. Thanks, Iman.

[Kayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phil's poems are genuine and raw with emotion. I cried and laughed reading this book.

[Saadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaye has a genius hold over language. This book is highly quotable and is a statement to Kaye’s ability of capturing seemingly evasive emotions. Repetition is a poem I keep thinking about over and over (see what I did there).
Some of these poems will come back to you at different moments in life and that is a huge teller of what Phil has done; created something that survives long after the last page.