It’s not uncommon for the world to open up once you walk in your gifting. For 20-year-old Kems The Poet, her faith in Jesus Christ led her back to poetry using it as an instrument for God’s glory and to reach people by leaning into what He wants her to say.
For Kems The Poet, her involvement in poetry started with a poem she wrote about a guy she liked. Years later, she picked poetry back up after going to church and hearing God saying, “I want you to write for me.” Though, she did not know what that meant at the time, Kems trusted in the word she was given.
Kems The Poet grew up in a Christian household, but it was after navigating the break-up of her parents and exploring life for herself that she came to Christ. Since giving her life to Christ last April, Kems The Poet has leaned into inspiration from God for her poetry. This has led her to be a finalist for how sweet the sound.
Resolute Magazine had the chance to chat with Kems The Poet before How Sweet The Sound UK getting to know a bit about her background, her life as a poet, what inspires her, and how her faith and craft intersect with one another.
How did you become involved in the art of spoken word poetry?
Kems The Poet: I had written one poem before Christ. It was about a guy that I liked. And [I thought] this is cool! I kind of ate with the poem.
[Then] I went to church, and God was…like speaking to me saying, “I want you to write for me.” But I was like “Okay, I don’t really know what that means.”
I went to church and it was a prophetic Sunday. And one of the prophets prophesied that God wants me to pick up my pen and write poetry. So, I took it back to the secret place and the Holy Spirit gave me the words. Ever since then, I’ve been writing poetry.
You shared in an interview that you picked poetry back up after giving your life back to Christ. What caused you to stop? What happened in between stopping and starting again?
KTP: When I wrote the poem about someone that I liked, in that space I didn’t really know who I was. I was just a girl, I was in my first year of [university]. I was just lost. I was struggling with addiction as well during that time. So, I was just really all over the place. When I then gave my life to Christ, I just found poetry [to be] such a release.
I get really shy or awkward to speak. With poetry, I can say what I’m tryna say so easily. The words just flow. I felt like it was a medium of how I communicate to God, how He communicates to me, and how I then communicate to His people. When I write my poetry I understand what I was trying to say.
It’s a medium for me to understand myself and what God is saying.
How does your faith interact with your craft?
KTP: [By] taking everything up to Him and knowing that He’s with me in everything that I do and everywhere that I go. If the opportunity has landed in my lap, I know that God wants me to do it. If He doesn’t want me to do it, He’ll make it very clear.
The consciousness that He’s with me in everything, and He’s inside of me. I’m not doing this for myself, it’s to advance His kingdom and for His sheep to hear what He has to say through my poetry.
You’ve shared you “want people to experience God through your writing and your poems.” What does that look like to you?
KTP: For me, to want people to experience God, I have to be close to Him myself. If I’m not close with God and deep in my relationship with Him, how do I expect people to experience Him through my words?
I take a lot of pride in writing. It’s not a joke. If God gives me inspiration, I will take it back to Him and continue to write on it, to craft it. I want everything that I share to be what God wants me to say. I fear saying something that was not in the script. Because sometimes if you say something, and God has allowed you to go and share in a place, and you say something that wasn’t needed– someone in the room has now missed an opportunity to be touched by God.
Everything we do is so intentional. If we’re his servants, we’re there to represent him. We’re not there to show face and just vibe. We’re there to capture someone, by His grace, and to win them to the kingdom.
You have Psalms 33:4 listed in your IG bio. What is the significance of that scripture for you?
KTP: It reminds me that my words are his words. The Psalms remind me of the significance of poetry in his kingdom. It reminds me of the type of person that David was as well, and the way David would just write and speak to the Lord. It reminds me that my words are His words and His words are my words. That I speak when He wants me to speak.
Every poem I have I go back to God, I say, “Is this what you want me to say? If you don’t, I’m not going to say it.” Do you know what I mean?
With where you are on your journey, from professing your faith just last April to now meeting your goal of performing at the Royal Albert Hall, did you ever expect the world to open up to you the way it has?
KTP: No. Not at all. (laughing). Even when I was in the world, when I was younger, I was very rowdy. But growing up, life makes you just like come back into your shell. If you ask my friends, I was like, “I’d rather be unseen.” It’s God, that’s all I can say.
If you had told me that this would be my life or that I was going to perform in the Royal Albert Hall, I would have never believed you at all. I never saw it. Then I started writing for Jesus, I just thought it would be something cute I’d do. Then get a good job, find a nice man, and go to church on Sundays.
What was the process of finding your voice in your craft?
KTP: The process went through a lot of comparison, to be honest. Just looking at what other people have done before, and then it became unhealthy. I was like, “Well, I don’t sound like that. I don’t write like that. So, clearly, it’s not gonna relate to the people like that.”
When I came back to the one who gave me the gift, because I said I wrote one poem and everything after that is the Holy Spirit’s inspiration. Finding my voice has been a process of me coming back to Jesus in the sense of, like, every time I write or every time I have inspiration, I talk to the Holy Spirit about it like he’s a friend. I just talk to him about it and have a conversation with him, and that’s how I’ll write. And I’ll know how he wants me to say it. Whether he wants me to be softer or harsher. Do I need to intensify the rhymes or do I need to just make a point clear?
What are areas of inspiration for you in your craft?
KTP: The Bible, the Holy Spirit, and reading. I like to read. It helps me to tap into a different part of my brain as well.
How did you become involved in How Sweet The Sound?
KTP: When I applied to it, I was going through a really hard time in my walk. I was struggling and I was just like, “I don’t know if I really want to do this anymore. I don’t know if I want this burden. Like, I just wanna be me. But I applied to it.
I have this thing when I hear something or when I get this feeling, I write it down. No matter how big it is or not, I just write it down. And I had written “I would like to perform at the Royal Albert Hall.” When I saw it, How Sweet The Sound, I was like, “I have nothing to lose. Let me just try.”
And, they said, “You’re a finalist.” That was it for me. It was emotional.
I cried so much because it was like God was just showing to me that “I still want to use you. You’re still mine.” Everything you’ve done is not in vain kind of thing.
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Writer Bio:
Shonette Reed is the editor of Resolute Magazine.