Katie Jenkins : part one

Katie Jenkins lives in Gloucestershire, England, with her husband and son. Her poetry is in print in Everyman’s Library’s Pocket Poets collection, Villanelles, and in the Wage Slaves anthology from Acid Bath Publishing. She has poems online with Floodlight Editions, Twist in Time, 8 Poems, Q/A and Sonic Boom. Her travel writing has featured in the UK's Guardian newspaper. She has a creative writing diploma with distinction from Oxford University, England. You can find her on Twitter @liljenko and her published work at linktr.ee/Katiejenkinspoet

How did you first engage with poetry?

It might be stating the obvious, but I was first introduced to the musicality of language as a child through nursery and playground rhymes. I had a frieze around my bedroom of nursery rhymes which I memorised (the joys of life pre-devices?!) and took part in many a rousing clapping game in the school playground. As a child of 1980s Britain, my first actual poetry book was naturally Allan Ahlberg’s Please Mrs Butler (including the iconic poem ‘Dog in the Playground’). I composed my own first poem at nine years old, leaning against the side of my house staring at a sunset, while chaos reigned indoors. I can still remember it word for word (it began: ‘How many people have passed here?/ How many people have stood/ And watched the pale sunset/ And seen the changing wood?’) I suppose it was at that moment that I came to experience poetry not simply as entertainer, but also as interpreter, healer and friend.