How I did it: Kith by Kate Dent
Kate Dent
Kith
Harrow over clod, young
we were kith. Irrepressible
our summer days fjords
their turns and aspects endless
with blaze, with arc, brazen.
Now, heavy limbed
tentered beasts, we are
lemons. And limed. Shale
gratefully aching, aging
with eptitude, clumsy, cockled.
We are clan, furrowed
from a soil of meaty
memory and mixed metaphors.
Twelve step soldered, lucky plump
dolts, muddied by the weight
of sinew and scrap.
Strung out, two-stroked, towing
some line, or other.
Still, we face this Goliath
of dark days upright, knowing
that winters are different
quiet, moored somehow.
We are akin, hale, spinning but
apocolypse steady. Yielding,
we’ll walk between the cracks of days.
How I did it: This re-drafting process was unusual. Firstly, there was meaty, helpful feedback from others in the group that I was able to digest before heading back to it. Secondly, I unintentionally spent a long time away from the poem. This turned out to be useful as I brought greater objectivity to the edit. The time had supplied some dispassionate focus. I also honed in on the sound of the words that weren’t working and cut them out. And I added punctuation in an attempt to offset any opacity for the reader. I will work on it again.
Kate Dent
An MA graduate with a background in London-based arts admin, Kate Dent, when not writing, runs a hospitality business near Stroud. Her poetry has been known to combine corporeal imagery with references to landscape and nature. She has had individual poems published and is working towards her first pamphlet. Her secret desire is to be a hip-hop MC.
Kate is in the Meadow, Dialect’s membership scheme and a regular contributor to the Level Up! poetry workshop group.
