We are delighted to welcome Brian Moses, multi-talented prolific performance poet and percussionist, to the blog to discuss his latest collection, On Poetry Street, a treasure trove of 52 playful poems, one for each week of the year, with Tanja Jennings, a former Carnegie Medals judge.

Brian has travelled widely with his repertoire of over 3,000 poems and is a Reading Champion for the National Literacy Trust and a National Poetry Day Ambassador. His enthusiastic indoor, outdoor and online school sessions combine rap, rhythm and rhyme.

On Poetry Street sparkles with alphabetic acrobatics, surreal scenarios and virtuoso wordplay. Here Brian talks about the art and lyricism of poetry, the pangs of first love and how a sudden idea can spark creativity.

Congratulations on your creative, inventive and quirky collection Brian.

What does poetry mean to you?

It’s an addiction. Poetry touches every emotion. It can make you smile, laugh, shiver, think, wonder. It can make you sad and it can comfort you. It can say a lot in little, but what it does say can be so powerful that it remains with you through your life.

What is the first poem you ever wrote?

When I was 16 and keen on Sally who lived up the street from me, I wrote her a poem. In fact, the first poem I ever wrote was for her. I spent hours and hours composing it until one day, when I knew I’d never do any better, I decided to deliver it. I copied it out neatly, folded it and stuck it in an envelope. When it got dark, I sneaked up the road and pushed it through her letterbox. I waited one day, two days, a week.....but she couldn’t have been impressed, and later I knew that she hadn’t when I saw her walking out with someone else, someone I knew. He was two years older than me and had his own motorbike. I knew no good would ever come of it. I worried for Sally, that she’d made the wrong choice, went for ‘flash’ instead of ‘steady’. I soon got over it, but for a week or so it did hurt, that first rejection. Fortunately, it didn’t stop me writing more poems!

What is the secret of your sound?

I’ve always loved music and music is rhythmical and poetry is rhythmical and so I can combine percussion with poetry and I like that.

How important is rhyme in your poetry?

I think about 50% of my poems rhyme and 50% don’t. When I do rhyme, the rhyming needs to be right. A weak rhyme can spoil a poem. A rhyming dictionary is my best friend!

Why do you think alliteration in poetry is important?

It sounds pleasing and it contributes to the flow of the poem.

Why do you think repetition is important in poetry?

It can build in a rhythm to a poem without using rhyme.

What is your favourite type of word play?

I’m not sure I have one. I just love playing around with words.

Is your ‘Unlikely Alphabet of Animals’ inspired by Edward Lear?

Not really. It was a poem written a while ago but one that I never found a home for. It seemed a perfect shoe in to ‘On Poetry Street’.

Which poem did you have the most fun creating?

Probably ‘Villages’ as I spent a long time investigating villages with interesting names although many of the ones I discovered were perhaps a little too rude to include in the book!

Which poem did you find the most difficult to write?

I was not sure about the ending to ‘The Land of Yesterday.’ It didn’t seem quite right. My brilliant editor Janice Thomson, came up with one or two different ideas and we batted them back and forth till I gave one of them a final twist & we were both happy.

‘A Mouthful of Words’ and ‘A Difficult Poem to Read Unless You’ve Swallowed a Dictionary’ are entertaining. How did you decide upon which words to include?

With the help of a rhyming dictionary and choosing words I liked the sound of and which rolled off the tongue in interesting ways.

What is your favourite word and why?

Winnebago because it rhymes with multiple words.

What gave you the idea for your ‘if’ sequence of poems?

All writers ask ‘What if’. They are two very powerful words and have the potential to lead you to some very strange places. ‘What if T. Rexes were vegetarian? What if aliens stole underpants? What if there was a 5 star snake hotel?

How long does it take you to think of a poem? Does it just flow?

Some poems arrive with a whoosh! they fall onto the page and within fifteen or twenty minutes I’ve pinned them down. Others take much longer and need to be returned to a number of times before I’m satisfied. My best ideas come to me when I am out walking the dog.

What is the most exciting idea you have ever had for a poem?

I think I’ve always been interested in things that sound like they shouldn’t be true but actually are true - a man walking his iguana along the beach, problems with taking a lobster through security, an Egyptian mummified foot on display in a museum. Things that are strange, but true, often start me writing.

Mark Elvins’ quirky illustrations capture the comic nature of your poetry. Which is your favourite and why?

I like so many of Mark’s illustrations. They complement the poems perfectly. You’re asking me to do what I tell children I can’t do when they ask what’s my favourite poem. My answer is the same as the poet Brian Patten who always replied that he couldn’t say because he was frightened that if he did, the other poems would get jealous!

Which poets have influenced you the most?

I was drawn to poetry through my enjoyment of the lyrics of rock music, particularly singer/songwriters like Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and the Beatles. Bob Dylan was the first ‘poet’ I admired. I read his lyrics on the backs of his vinyl album covers and his words fired my imagination.

The poetry I was offered in school made little impression on me at the time. It wasn’t until I was 17 and picked up a book of poems entitled ‘Penguin Modern Poets: The Mersey Sound’ that I realised that poetry could be fun, that it could speak to me in a language that I understood and that it had relevance to my life as a teenager. Roger McGough, Adrian Henri and Brian Patten inspired me. I was hooked. The book changed my life.

Which poets would you recommend to readers today?

These days I read a lot of poets, particularly those who write for young people. Charles Causley is a favourite and often neglected in schools. Other writers whose work I admire are Kit Wright, John Agard, Wes Magee and Gareth Owen.

What advice would you give to a child wanting to write poetry?

If you want to be a writer, write. Don’t just talk about it, do it.  And keep a writer’s notebook filled with ideas, things people say, strange signs, observations etc It quickly becomes a treasure chest of ideas that may one day become poems.

Do you have any plans for future projects?

I have a verse novel being published by Scallywag in October 2025. I have a new collection of poetry that’s almost complete, plus I’m working on a fiction title and a poetry book for the very young.

Many thanks to Brian for this insight into his work and to Scallywag Press for the opportunity.

Discover more about Brian Moses’ by visiting his website at https://brianmoses.co.uk/ and You Tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@bmredsealearn.