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Brian
Moses
Poems
by Brian Moses
Shopping Trolley
The Weirdest Exhibit
A Feather From an Angel
The Ssssnake Hotel
Dragons' Wood
Shopping Trolley
Scoot down the aisles
in my shopping trolley,
I could go for miles
in my shopping trolley.
Never say excuse me,
never say please,
ram it in the back
of someone's knees.
You really won't
believe your eyes,
my shopping trolley's
been customised.
It's got bull bars,
radio controls,
engine in the back
and it purrs like a Rolls.
It's got a Volvo chassis,
a velvet seat,
and around the store
it can't be beat.
It does somersaults
and big backflips.
roly-polys
and wheely dips.
It does over seventy
miles per hour,
flashing past
in a burst of power.
Scoot down the aisles
in my shopping trolley,
I could go for miles
in my shopping trolley.
Never say excuse me,
never say please,
ram it in the back
of someone's knees.
The
Weirdest Exhibit
The museum
galleries
go on for miles,
you see furniture and furnishings,
tapestries and tiles.
You see kitchens where fire grates
are blackened with soot,
but the weirdest exhibit
is a mummified foot.
It's gruesome
and gross
but you'll love it the most,
the Egyptian mummified foot.
You can see
right inside
where the skin has been ripped,
then you¹ll notice the bone
and the way it's been chipped.
And beneath the bandage
you see actual flesh...
I bet it smelt cheesy
even when it was fresh!
It's gruesome
and gross
but you'll love it the most,
the Egyptian mummified foot.
And what's
so amazing,
what's really fantastic,
the toenails are real
and not made of plastic.
And beneath the nails
you can see grains of sand.
Are they picked at each night
by a mummified hand?
It's gruesome
and gross
but you'll love it the most,
the Egyptian mummified foot.
A
Feather from an Angel
Anton's box
of treasures held
a silver key and a glassy stone,
a figurine made of polished bone
and a feather from an angel.
The figurine
was from Borneo,
the stone from France or Italy,
the silver key was a mystery
but the feather came from an angel.
We might have
believed him if he'd said
the feather fell from a bleached white crow
but he always replied, 'It's an angel's, I know,
a feather from an angel."
We might have
believed him if he'd said,
An albatross let the feather fall,
But he had no doubt, no doubt at all,
his feather came from an angel.
'I thought
I'd dreamt him one night,' he'd say,
'But in the morning I knew he'd been there;
he left a feather on my bedside chair,
a feather from an angel.'
And it seems
that all my life I've looked
for the sort of belief that nothing could shift,
something simple, yet precious as Anton's gift,
a feather from an angel.
The
Ssssnake Hotel
An Indian python
will welcome you
to the Ssssnake hotel.
As he finds your keys he'll maybe enquire
if you're feeling well.
And he'll say that he hopes
you survive the night,
that you sleep without screaming
and don't die of fright
at the Ssssnake hotel.
There's an
anaconda that likes to wander
the corridors at night,
and a boa that will lower itself onto guests
as they search for the light.
And if, by chance, you lie awake
and nearby something hisses,
I warn you now, you're about to be covered
with tiny vipery kisses,
at the Ssssnake hotel.
And should
you hear a chorus of groans
coming from the room next door,
and the python cracking someone's bones,
please don't go out and explore.
Just ignore all the screams
and the strangled yells
when you spend a weekend
at the Ssssnake hotel.
Dragons'
Wood
We didn't see
dragons
in Dragons' Wood
but we saw
where the dragons had been.
We saw tracks
in soft mud
that could only have been scratched
by some sharp-clawed creature.
We saw scorched
earth
where fiery dragon breath
had whitened everything to ash.
We saw trees
burnt to charcoal.
We saw dragon dung
rolled into boulders.
And draped
from a branch
we saw sloughed off skin,
scaly, still warm...
We didn't see
dragons
in Dragons' Wood,
but this was the closest
we'd ever been
to believing.
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All
about Brian Moses
Brian was born
a long time ago in Ramsgate, Kent. In the 1960s, when The Beatles and
the Rolling Stones were all the rage, he decided to become a rock and
roll star. Alas, he was never invited to appear on Top of the Pops. Instead,
he became a teacher, and began writing and performing his poems to schools.
At this he was very successful and is now one of Britain's best loved
children's poets. He has had over 160 books published. His latest book
is called Taking Out the Tigers. He
is married to Anne and has two children, Karen and Linette.
(Teachers!
To contact Brian and for more information about school and library visits
please see the Teacher Zone.)
Taking
Out the Tigers
Brian Moses
(Macmillan Children's Books) Illustrated
by Chris Garbutt
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Questions
and Answers with Brian Moses
When
did you start writing?
I started as a teenager. I used to play the guitar and write songs but
it
all sounded pretty dreadful, so one day I put the guitar away and the
songs turned into poems. Also a poet from Liverpool, Roger McGough, was
a great inspiration.
Why
do you write poetry?
I love words and the way that a poem is a snapshot, giving you a brief
glimpse, but a glimpse that is often so powerful that it can stay with
you
forever.
What
sort of books do you write?
A lot of poetry, picture books, books for teachers, and some information
books. I also edit anthologies of poetry, choosing poems by other poets
along with some of my own.
How
long does it take to write a poem?
Anything from five minutes to a year. Some poems arrive very quickly,
others demand more encouragement before they reveal themselves.
How
long does it take to write a book?
When I put together a poetry book I'm collecting together poems that I've
written over the past few years, so the hard work has been done at that
stage. If I'm writing a picture book, this can take from an hour or two,
to three or four days. A book for teachers can take a couple of months
and the story book that I've just completed took me about six months.
Where
do ideas come from?
Ideas come from anywhere and everywhere. An idea is like a knock on the
door. Ignore the knocking and whoever it is goes away. When an idea comes
knocking, I can't afford to ignore it. I grab it quickly before it can
escape.
How
do you write your poems?
I write on scraps of paper or record them on a Dictaphone. First drafts
are written up in my poetry notebook, then transferred to the word processor
where I can cut and paste and jigsaw the poem until I think it's right.
What
books have you written?
My most recent book of poetry is Taking Out the Tigers (Macmillan).
For younger children there's I Wish I Could Dine With A Porcupine
and Is There Anything There at The Top of The Stair? (Both published
by HodderWayland). There's also a picture book Beetle in the Bathroom
(Puffin) and a number of poetry anthologies including The Secret
Lives of Teachers, The Teacher's Revenge, Aliens Stole My Underpants
and The Works 2 (edited with Pie Corbett). A Poetry CD Poems
Out Loud featuring 40 poems by a number of poets with music is also
available from HodderWayland. Biscuit Crumbs is a new collection
for very young children, available from QED publications.
Are
you writing anything at the moment?
Yes. My latest projects include my Selected Poems to be published
by Macmillan, Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe - a picture book from
Puffin to be published in June 2006, a CD of my poems from the National
Poetry Archive and an anthology of pet poems.
How
many schools have you visited?
I've made almost 2,200 school visits in the last 18 years.
Do
you travel around very much?
Yes, I visit schools and libraries throughout the UK, everywhere from
Scotland to the Channel Islands. I also visit International Schools in
Europe and have recently presented my poetry and percussion show in Munich,
Frankfurt, Brussels, Geneva, Zurich, Madrid, Cordoba, Paris, Belfast and
Dublin.
Which
is the best school that you've visited?
The school that I'm working in when I'm asked that question !
Have
you got a family?
My wife, Anne, and my two daughters, Karen, who is 20 years old and Linette,
who is 12. Family life gives me lots of ideas for poems.
Have
you got any pets?
A lop-eared rabbit called Miffy and four chickens - Darcy, Twiggy, Dora
and Boadicea - Warrior Chicken!
Lucky
you. What soccer team do you support?
Tottenham, ever since the great days of the early Sixties when they won
3-1 in the 1961 Cup Final.
Taking
Out the Tigers and Brian's other books can
be found on
amazon.co.uk by
CLICKING
HERE
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