Interview with Mary Dickins

Hello Poetry Lovers

Welcome back to the Talk Show studio!

(Ecstatic applause from the audience)

Now settle down, PL’s because our esteemed guest today is the talented poet Mary Dickins!

(Audience cheer. Security look worried)

Thank you, Heather. You don’t think it’s a bit much?!

(Audience disagree wholeheartedly)

I was born in London in 1949 just after my family arrived from India to escape the chaos of partition.

We lived in a prefab just off the Old Kent Road. I had a turbulent childhood and was eventually taken into care when I was thirteen.

From  leaving care at 16 until my late twenties I commenced what I now think of as the ‘vagabond years’ travelling and working across Europe and Middle East.

I returned to become a mature student at North London Polytechnic (now London Metropolitan University) and came full circle when I went to work there  as a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood in 2010.

In the mean time I  became a writer and campaigner for equality and inclusion in education.

I am proud that I never let my difficulties in life define me and managed to have a loving family of my own and a successful career, but it definitely wasn’t easy.

I remember writing my first rhyming poem when I was four and being very excited about it. It was a nonsense poem about a “man wrapped up in a pin”.

I loved a bit of Edward Lear at the time. I think writing and listening to poetry has always had the capacity to heal and uplift me.

However it wasn’t until I was sixty that I started sharing my work and taking myself more seriously as a poet.

There are so many poets that I admire, it’s hard to say but the Liverpool poets are definitely in there along with John Cooper Clarke and John Hegley.

I’ve always loved Maya Angelou and Grace Nichols for their ability to inspire great emotion with a few simple words.

My best gig was the launch of my second collection “Late Shift at the Pickle Factory”. I tried to create a proper party atmosphere and according to my guests I succeeded.

My worst gig was probably at a street party when a gale force wind threatened to blow me and my poems away.

I have had gigs where hardly anybody came and gigs where I felt I was in the wrong place but each time it has been a learning curve and led to new connections.

So I think there is probably no such thing as a bad gig.

I am working towards another pamphlet at the moment but I am not the most prolific of poets.

I do courses at the Poetry School which keep me on track and give me a sounding board.

I was recently approached by a musician friend to write some lyrics which is exciting. I often write poems for family and friends. I’m up for anything really. Just ask.

Well, I’d better shoot off, Heather. I’m – er – meeting someone outside the studio!

She’s rumpled us, Dobby! Come on! Let’s leg it!

( Our esteemed guest legs it (cautiously) up the lighted staircase. Dobby darts after her, eyeing Mary’s boots!)

Wasn’t Mary a terrific guest, Poetry Lovers?! A very intelligent and innovative poet. Do look at her work, it’s wonderful.

Thanks for coming to the Talk Show, PL’s. We’ll be back with more poetry action real soon