Tell everybody a little about yourself
I was born in Lincolnshire in 1953, from a long line of servants and skilled farm workers. I won a scholarship to Oxford. After taking my degree, I married. I worked as a librarian, an accounts clerk, and, for over twenty years, as a metal finisher in my husband's tiny family business. I also spent a great deal of time with animals and in the countryside. I've managed to write ten books of poetry and have had poems, and poetry programmes broadcast on national BBC Radio.
I'm very bad at biography - but you'll find more information, and lots of poems, at
https://alisonbrackenbury.wordpress.com/
Was your creativity affected in any way during the lockdown? Did being lockdown make you feel inspired or deflated?
I did feel compelled to write, by the intensity and strangeness of the times. Here is a link to one of my lockdown poems, published on the MMU website 'Write Where We Are Now', set up by Carol Ann Duffy:
https://www.mmu.ac.uk/write/willow-pattern-a-lockdown-walk.php
Was it therapeutic doing creative work during lockdown?
Yes, there is a purity about concentration, which is a great relief!
How did you occupy your time?
I found that it was over-occupied by familiar and unfamiliar demands: organising shopping, coping with a drought-stricken garden, waiting in the vet's car park with a very sick cat...
What was the main thinking behind your poem submitted to Together Behind Four Walls ?
'Flash' draws together brilliant, sometimes distant memories of kingfishers. 'Sunday on the coach' tries to capture one moment, which balances knowledge of the wider world with a smaller sanctuary. 'Before they wake' simply followed the phases of a particularly lovely - and chilly - lockdown sunrise, and all that these suggested to me...
What inspires most of your poems?
I used to say 'Nature and animals, especially horses'. But I think people are finding their way into more and more poems!
Do you have any favourite poems, from all the poems you have written?
Possibly 'Skies', which is the title poem of my last collection, published by Carcanet in 2016. It also appears in my Selected Poems, 'Gallop', published by Carcanet in 2019. You can find extracts from it, and lots of photographs of my country family - and animals - here:
https://carcanetblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/skies-by-alison-brackenbury.html
Do you remember the first poem you ever wrote or one of the first?
It was a short poem about trees. I was six. The ending was terrible! I will not inflict it upon you...
Do you ever think of poems before going to sleep or just after waking up?
I occasionally think of poems late at night. I MUST write these down, or they fall out of my head completely during the hours of darkness! I do find the first part of the day is good for revising, and for plunging into new poems...
Do you hand write poems or go directly on to your computer?
I hand write them, and copy out draft after draft.. all by hand,
Do you ever give up on poems you have started?
From time to time. I am very stubborn.
Do you do any other creative activities?
Nothing that would be classed as art! I am a compulsive gardener. I make cakes elaborately and occasionally...
Do you only focus on poetry or do you also write prose?
I write prose when asked e.g. for reviews. I feel I should, but I find it very hard! Much chocolate and coffee is consumed...
Do you poems ever have strong messages?
Some poems decide that they will speak out in their final lines. If I decide in advance that they should, they never co-operate...
How would you describe the tone of your poems?
I think they are a kind of song, sometimes anxious, sometimes hopeful.
If you had to write a poem about yourself, how would it start?
'Oh dear'...
I was born in Lincolnshire in 1953, from a long line of servants and skilled farm workers. I won a scholarship to Oxford. After taking my degree, I married. I worked as a librarian, an accounts clerk, and, for over twenty years, as a metal finisher in my husband's tiny family business. I also spent a great deal of time with animals and in the countryside. I've managed to write ten books of poetry and have had poems, and poetry programmes broadcast on national BBC Radio.
I'm very bad at biography - but you'll find more information, and lots of poems, at
https://alisonbrackenbury.wordpress.com/
Was your creativity affected in any way during the lockdown? Did being lockdown make you feel inspired or deflated?
I did feel compelled to write, by the intensity and strangeness of the times. Here is a link to one of my lockdown poems, published on the MMU website 'Write Where We Are Now', set up by Carol Ann Duffy:
https://www.mmu.ac.uk/write/willow-pattern-a-lockdown-walk.php
Was it therapeutic doing creative work during lockdown?
Yes, there is a purity about concentration, which is a great relief!
How did you occupy your time?
I found that it was over-occupied by familiar and unfamiliar demands: organising shopping, coping with a drought-stricken garden, waiting in the vet's car park with a very sick cat...
What was the main thinking behind your poem submitted to Together Behind Four Walls ?
'Flash' draws together brilliant, sometimes distant memories of kingfishers. 'Sunday on the coach' tries to capture one moment, which balances knowledge of the wider world with a smaller sanctuary. 'Before they wake' simply followed the phases of a particularly lovely - and chilly - lockdown sunrise, and all that these suggested to me...
What inspires most of your poems?
I used to say 'Nature and animals, especially horses'. But I think people are finding their way into more and more poems!
Do you have any favourite poems, from all the poems you have written?
Possibly 'Skies', which is the title poem of my last collection, published by Carcanet in 2016. It also appears in my Selected Poems, 'Gallop', published by Carcanet in 2019. You can find extracts from it, and lots of photographs of my country family - and animals - here:
https://carcanetblog.blogspot.com/2016/02/skies-by-alison-brackenbury.html
Do you remember the first poem you ever wrote or one of the first?
It was a short poem about trees. I was six. The ending was terrible! I will not inflict it upon you...
Do you ever think of poems before going to sleep or just after waking up?
I occasionally think of poems late at night. I MUST write these down, or they fall out of my head completely during the hours of darkness! I do find the first part of the day is good for revising, and for plunging into new poems...
Do you hand write poems or go directly on to your computer?
I hand write them, and copy out draft after draft.. all by hand,
Do you ever give up on poems you have started?
From time to time. I am very stubborn.
Do you do any other creative activities?
Nothing that would be classed as art! I am a compulsive gardener. I make cakes elaborately and occasionally...
Do you only focus on poetry or do you also write prose?
I write prose when asked e.g. for reviews. I feel I should, but I find it very hard! Much chocolate and coffee is consumed...
Do you poems ever have strong messages?
Some poems decide that they will speak out in their final lines. If I decide in advance that they should, they never co-operate...
How would you describe the tone of your poems?
I think they are a kind of song, sometimes anxious, sometimes hopeful.
If you had to write a poem about yourself, how would it start?
'Oh dear'...
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