Spotlight On Writers
Alan Hardy
- Where do you originate from?
I live in St.Albans, UK, a small city a few miles north of London, and have lived there or in the surrounding area most of my life. Exceptions were five years in Rochester, a lovely city to the south of London, associated with Charles Dickens, where I taught English at a secondary school, and a month or two I spent training English teachers years ago in Rome (a wonderful experience I need hardly add). My mother in fact was Italian, and moved to England with her English husband shortly after getting married. Most of my other teaching years have been spent teaching English to foreign students as a director of an English language school. My wife is Swiss, so I do have a background in which three countries, Italy, Switzerland, and of course principally England, play a central role. I think this ‘international’ hinterland has helped shape the way I view the world and, hopefully, look for inclusivity and understanding both socially and creatively, rather than narrow-minded exclusivity. That’s the hope, anyway…
- What do you cherish most about the place you call home?
St. Albans was originally a Roman city (called Verulamium), one of the principal cities during Britain’s Roman period. You can still see ruins and monuments from that time, principally in the extensive Verulamium Park, which has a lake, rolling countryside and beautiful walks, and is one of quite a few parks throughout the city. The city itself is spread around a gentle hill, and the slightly rising or dipping streets containing a good many buildings dating back centuries are particularly evocative and striking. I love strolling through the city or park on an evening (or afternoon), either to one of my favourite pubs, or just for the pleasure of watching ancient streets bobbing along in my eye-span or the crowds milling around the paths circling the lake. St. Albans also boasts the second longest cathedral (early medieval) in England, partly constructed out of Roman bricks cannibalized from the remains of Verulamium. I probably go there every month or two to soak in the atmosphere.
- What ignites your creativity?
This is always a difficult one to answer. It is true that a particular incident, observation or thought can inspire me to write a poem, but it’s also equally true that a fair proportion of my output is produced when I sit down specifically with the purpose to write a poem, even if the first few minutes are spent trying to think of its theme and content. It’s essentially a question of wracking my brain and memory for recent observations, events or images that I can use. The poem evolves from that initial germ which, in the process of writing, develops and establishes further links and progressions and, hopefully, starts to point in the direction of some measure of completion. Then, in subsequent days (extending possibly to weeks or months), there starts the process of rewriting and reworking, and, most importantly, cutting and trimming. Creativity is of course organic, and is the growth of ideas and images, but, like plants, needs structure in which to survive, and a good measure of pruning. So, that’s my answer really. Incidents and observations do inspire me, but what really ignites my creativity (I think and hope) is the actual writing process itself, that curious blend of almost child-like creative excitement allied to, at the same time, a surgical, even cold-blooded reworking/rewriting.
- Do you have a favorite word, and could you incorporate it into a poetic phrase?
Like most people, I’m always struck by the repetitions within life, or even how life becomes an interminable series of repetitions. Interminable is a word I suppose could be termed a favorite of mine. I often say it to myself in a sort of self-deprecating way to get through a particularly boring or difficult episode (you know, a bad day at work or a never-ending conversation I’ve got trapped in). I suppose an adjective such as interminable (a bit too vague and imprecise, as well as overlong) is not one to really use in poetry if you want to write in a direct and pithy way, but here goes:
I stopped at the crossroads, glanced at winding paths behind and ahead, to left and right, stretching out into the misty horizon, could only bow my head at the interminable journeys I am compelled to make.
- What is your pet peeve?
One thing I don’t like is when people interfere unnecessarily in other people’s affairs. Examples, and I’m sure we’ve all experienced this, would be when in our local neighbourhood there’s always someone who points out that so-and-so shouldn’t be parking their car in such-and-such a place, or gets annoyed if somebody wants to paint their front door a particular colour because it would annoy their view of the pictorial aesthetics of the area. Linked to this ‘peeve’, I must say I’m a bit averse to committees, and the tendency of committees to impose themselves on others. My ultimate wish (and I know it’s a bit unrealistic) is for people to get together and try to run things, at whatever level, whether locally or nationally, with as great a level of consensus and democratic engagement as possible. But I know that’s not easy…
- How would you describe the essence of Alan Hardy?
My life, as most people’s, is centred around my family, in my case, my wife and daughter. We often do things together, not just holidays and day-trips and such, but also the routines and minutiae of life, which of course make up its greater part. Allied to that, I hope I don’t do anything which disturbs or wounds anybody else I know or who lives in my vicinity. Writing of course plays a great part in my life. I’ve written a few novels, but my ‘serious stuff’, if I can call it that, is poetry. It’s been like that for so many years. There might be the occasional period when I stray from my obsession, but it always returns, as night follows day. I think that’s it. To sum up, I don’t want to do anything nasty to anyone, without necessarily going out of my way to do anything excessively altruistic. As I said, the central points of my life are my family and the area/district in which we live, and my undying passion for poetry.
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