LatinosUSA

• Juan Re Crivello: Do you think poetry is back in fashion?

Alan Hardy: I think the last few years have opened up a lot of exciting possibilities, mainly through the explosion of online poetry sites and magazines, such as the excellent Chewers by Masticadores. This has created more opportunities and outlets for both poets and poetry editors/publishers. So, my answer is yes.

• JRC: Is your poetry created daily, or do you wait to be inspired to write it?

AH: I don’t write poetry daily, in the sense of creating new work each day, but I try to work on a poem (or poems) as often as possible (though not as often as I should). The hardest (and most essential) part of writing is the reworking/sculpting/pruning of a poem once the first version has seen the light of day.

• JRC: What is your next publishing project? Could you tell us how it came about?

AH: I took a break for a few years from submitting poetry (although I always kept writing), so I think my next project is to prepare a new poetry book. It’s probably about time.

• JRC: What city do you live in, and can you describe your favorite bar or café?

AH: I live in St. Albans, UK, a small city north of London. My favourite cafe/coffee bar is in the centre of St. Albans in what was once the building that housed the administrative HQ of St. Albans, now converted to a museum with a lovely cafe situated in what was once the courtroom. It’s still set out as a courtroom (with the original places for the defendant, the lawyers, judges, the jury, etc.), so drinking a coffee and munching a cake there has a special atmospheric feel.

NIGHT-PORTER by Alan Hardy

Spare a thought for the night-porter,
his jacket and trousers rumpled from snatched couch,
his collar and tie churlishly awry,
the bleary-eyed guy you routinely apologise to
returning to the hotel giddily late,
for a time the top-hatted white-scarfed raffish gent
smartly dropping a coin in his sweaty palm
he is your comically dismissed servile tool.

When you find yourself
waiting to open a door and doff your cap,
watching the minutes of others’ social cavorting ticking by,
you will understand that seedy look and smell
of interrupted sleep,
slightly querulous avoidance of eyes.
In the fidgety night-porter’s crumpled shame,
having to make a living waiting for others
to deign to ring a bell,
in his beaten-down eyes,
you will see the fervour and hot-headed contempt
that massacred the Tsar and bred a coup,
inspired an outrage and shot a duke.
A porter’s dull eyes and sloppy gait
is he who waits impassively with outstretched hand
to have acknowledged his inferiority,
fuming riots within.

Author Biography

Alan Hardy has for many years run an English language school for foreign students (in UK). He’s been published in such magazines as Envoi, Iota, Poetry Salzburg, Lothlorien, Chewers, and others. His poetry pamphlets include «Wasted Leaves» (1996) and «I Went with Her (2007).» Though he has just recently started submitting again (after a little pause), he has always kept writing (and reading) poems.

Book

“I Went with Her” is available for purchase on Amazon:

or by contacting Alan through X: @AlanWilliamHard