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The poet Kate Davis explores the way Thomas Hardy's poem 'Afterwards' has influenced her way of being.

In this series, artists, writers and thinkers tell us about the ways they have been shaped by their ‘ways of being’, their individual bodies – what freedoms they allow, and their sensitivities or limits. They also explore how their work has been shaped and informed by the body, its freedoms and limits. And as many creative people have discovered - limits can lead to originality, and freedoms can offer ‘more of the same’.

Kate is the first of our essayists, who each let us into their particular 'way of being' via their relationship with a cultural touchstone (whether it’s a poem, a singer, a television series, or a story from the Bible). Each tells us about something that has enriched their own creativity, and brought them closer appreciating their own way of being. Kate contracted polio as a child and it has informed her relationship with the ground and with poetry.

Kate Davis
Kate's first poetry collection is 'The Girl Who Forgets How to Walk' - she has always lived in the Furness peninsula of south Cumbria.

Producer: Faith Lawrence