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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. back
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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 back
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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 Olympic Poems which I co-wrote with Roger Stevens(Macmillan).
For younger children there's The Budgie Likes to Boogie - My collected Animal
poems (Caboodle Books) There is also my 'Best of...' book Behind the Staffroom
Door ((Macmillan) There are also picture books such as Trouble at the Dinosaur
Cafe(Puffin) and The Snake Hotel (Macmillan), a number of poetry anthologies includingThe
Secret Lives of Teachers, Aliens Stole My Underpants and The Works 2 (edited with
Pie Corbett). A Poetry CD and book Walking With My Iguana featuring 40 poems by
a number of poets with music (HodderWayland.) My first children's story book is
published by Caboodle and called Python. Are
you writing anything at the moment?
Yes.
My latest projects include Dragons' Wood - a picture book from Anova to be published
in early 2013, two new collections of my own poetry, A Cat Called Elvis to be
published by Macmillan in August 2012, and The Monster Sale which will be published
in 2013. I'm also writing my childhood autobiography - my life up to the age of
14. How
many schools have you visited?
I've
made over 2,500 school visits in the last 24years. Wow!
You must travel around a lot!
I
do. 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,
Milan, 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 a professional singer working
on cruise ships at the moment, and Linette, who is a student at the London College
of Fashion. Have
you got any pets?
A
fox red labrador called Honey, a lop-eared rabbit called Miffy and five chickens
- Boadicea - Warrior Chicken, Kate Moss, Marie Antoinette, Brigitte Bardot and
Bertha 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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