Poetry and Motherhood

Was interested in a recent interview in Mslexia (Mar/Apr/May 2012) with Alice Oswald.

Part of the article reads; It's clear to me that being a wife and mother as well as a poet is an incredibly important aspect of Oswald's writing practice. She describes being 'determined from the start that motherhood would help my writing, and that I wasn't going to resent childcare. I thought: I've chosen to do this and I'm going to make it a positive contribution to poetry, by bringing that kind of unusual world into it.'

I could not have agreed more when she said; 'One of the main features of motherhood is interruption'. Her solution? 'I incorporate interruption into the structure of a poem. Poems are all about intermittency and interruptions, so that became a kind of aesthetic for me.'

'If I'm beginning a new poem, my best way of attacking it at the moment is to get up at around 4 or 5am and go to my shed with an extremely strong cup of coffee. My life is so scattered with children, that is the only time I know I will not be interrupted.' I know what she means, but working as well, I think 4am is far too early - even for an early bird like me!!

She does say that 'Every task - cleaning, cooking, walking the dog - is exercise for the non-literary side of my mind', which she hopes feeds into how she writes.