Kim Thomas, Mississippi poet, and Betsy Ball, SHS researcher. Photo by N. Jacobs
Major Works
- Poetry with An Attitude
- Stop Disrespecting God: Repenting Poetry (2012)
- Joseph: From the Pit, To the Prison, To the Palace
- Make It Plain
- DaPoet
Biography of Kim Thomas
by Betsy Ball (SHS)
Kim Thomas talks to SHS English students in Mrs. Smith’s and Mrs. Jacobs’s classes
Kim Thomas was born in Crawford, Mississippi, in 1974. She lived in Artesia until she was about eight or nine years old. After living in Artesia, she moved to Columbus, Mississippi, where she still lives. Living in Columbus, she attended West Lowndes High School. She began to write when she was a sophomore in high school. She wanted to be a rapper more than anything at this point in her life. Thomas says , “God changed my life.” She began to turn some of her raps, such as Wild Child into poetry. She began to write poetry seriously as a junior in high school. At this point in her career, life itself was her biggest influence. Everything promotion-wise was taken care of by her mother. She wrote one book that was published as she graduated from high school.
After graduating from high school Thomas went on to attend Itawamba Community College, East Mississippi Community College, Mississippi University for Women, and Mississippi State University. Thomas switched majors many times but finally decided upon Educational Psychology.
Maya Angelou is her favorite author. Thomas wasn’t big on reading in high school, and poetry had to be written a certain way. She states, “Maya Angelou’s work woke up something inside of me. She had boldness, determination, and a ‘don’t give up’ attitude.”
Poet Kim Thomas and SHS teacher and Mississippi writer Anne Smith. Photo by N. Jacobs
In 1996 Kim Thomas traveled to Salt Lake City to appear on the popular television shows, Touched by an Angel and Promised Land. She made nine appearances on Touched by an Angel, and eleven or twelve appearances on Promised Land. Thomas now travels locally to Tupelo, Mississippi, and Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for book signing sessions.
In 1997 she began work on what was to be her next publication, Writers of the New Millennium. This book will be composed of poems and short stories submitted to Thomas. She has her own publishing company, Good News Ministries Publishing Ministries. Her publishing company handles two other writers, Annie Smith, and Valerie Ampiah. Ingram is their distributor. Interlink Media has done some editing for her writing as well as the cover of her book. Interlink Media is stationed in Columbus.
Kim Thomas and a student
Now Thomas speaks to high school students, elementary school students, and church groups. “I feel like there is a message for everybody,” says Thomas. She reserves her favorite piece, A Woman in the City, just for church groups. It has a Biblical reference and is also one of her longer poems. She feels like her poetry has a message for everyone from ages eight to 101! God became her main influence about four years ago after she participated in a revival that changed her life.
When she has time outside of writing, Kim Thomas works with children. She works with her siblings, cousins, and cousins’ friends. Sometimes they watch a movie, and sometimes they go on a picnic. The biggest support in her life has been her family. Thomas says, “They have encouraged me all of the way, and that is what counts the most.”
Reviews
A Review of Various Kim Thomas Poems
by comments by Starkville High School Students
The poem entitled “I Found Me a Romeo” is easily understood by both female and male teenagers because this could have happened to them at some point in their life. The poem is about a girl or woman who found out her boyfriend has cheated on her so she found herself someone another companion who is truthful and loyal. After a while the ex-boyfriend comes back begging to have her back, but she tells him he messed up and now she has moved on to “greener pastures.”
Stephen Groves
Ms. Thomas has touched many people with poems like “Wild Child,” “I Wear the Skin,” “I found Me a Romeo,” and many more. Her poems describe things like racism, bad relationships, problems in the home and finding a sense of peace.”
April Rhodes
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Miss Thomas read her poems. It seemed as though she had a personal connection to the feelings behind each poem. She writes poetry very well, and she presents herself as a confident and bold young woman.
Amy Grosinske
Ms. Thomas’s poem “If I Had Two Wings” is an example of how we are entrapped by society. The wings represent an escape to freedom. It gives a sense of hope that freedom is to come. She’s a wonderful and very expressive author/writer/poet. She expresses her poems and writings very well.
Portia Witherspoon
I like this poem (“I Found My Romeo”) because I can relate to it in a way. When Kim recited her poem, she spoke as if it were happening at that moment. She has also inspired me to accomplish more things throughout my teenage life.
Deanna Dantzler
An Interview with Kim Thomas, December 1999
by Betsy Ball (SHS)
1. How did you become interested in writing poetry?
Writing was never something I set out to do. I started out rapping. I wrote a lot of raps, but later on as I matured, I began to write songs. But the songs turned into poetry. I still didn’t know what I was doing. It was just something that I did. It sneaked upon me.
2. Was it difficult to publish your first book?
No. I was doing some secretarial work when I was in high school. This lady that I worked for had a nephew who knew how to do typesetting, and he did it for me. It was not hard for me. I did local book signings locally. I went also went to Alabama and surrounding states.
3. What is the hardest aspect of writing poetry?
Earlier photo of Kim Thomas from book cover
I tell everybody if they read Behind the Wall of Poetry, it has a lot of me- the hurting and pain that I was going through at the time. It has a lot of the things that I struggled with and it was hard for me to write because I wrote according to the way I felt. Some reason I thought that writing hurt me. I remember taking my pen and holding it up to God and telling him that I didn’t want to write again. It appeared that writing was hurting me. That pain made writing hard. I vowed that I would never write again. I continued to write because it was a part of me. It’s like when I stopped I couldn’t breathe. I had to realize that whatever I went through and struggled with would help someone else. I learned to look at my writing from the point that it was not hurting me but helping someone else. My writing changed after Behind the Wall of Poetry. That is when I started to write more religious poems. I had also changed.
4. What is your goal as a writer?
My ultimate goal is to have my own publishing company downtown Columbus on Short Main Street. I want to knock down the walls separating the buildings. I want that whole line of buildings for my company. I want to publish some of the finest authors in Mississippi. I want it to be renowned and as big as Random House. I would like to build up Mississippi and be a help to those residents who do not have money but have the talent. I would also like for my works to be best sellers.