Brian Moses has been a professional children’s poet since 1988.. To date he has over 200 books published including volumes of his own poetry such as A Cat Called Elvis and Lost Magic: The Very Best of Brian Moses (both Macmillan), anthologies such as The Secret Lives of Teachers and Aliens Stole My Underpants (both Macmillan) and picture books such as Beetle in the Bathroom and Trouble at the Dinosaur Cafe (both Puffin). I would share a couple of performance audio clips but refrain from doing so as I no longer am at the school (it being one of my placement schools) and I don’t have permission of the parents to share anything online, even if it is only their voice. Brian Moses (born 1950) is an English poet. He mainly writes for children, has over 200 published works and is a children's poet. His poetry books and anthologies for Macmillan have sold in excess of 1 million copies. Moses was asked by CBBC to write a poem for the Queen's 80th birthday. The Highwayman could also be the inspiration for children producing different types of writing e.g. Bess’s diary entries, a love letter from The Highwayman to Bess, a play depicting the meeting between Tim the ostler and the soldiers prior to the final shooting. A switch in perspective would also be intriguing, perhaps the poem could be re written as a story through the eyes of The Highwayman himself.

The effect was amazing. Suddenly, the children were discussing if they had an unusual animal, what would it be and why? What would they do with this animal? How could they describe it? This then led to using features of poems to describe their animal and how they do what they do. They then, after some preparation lessons, wrote their own poems and performed it. Not only that but the children decided to share some for the school’s 50th Anniversary Celebrations. Differentiated group activities Text marking. Using different coloured felt tip pens the children are to find and mark the different sections of the poem, identifying any patterns that they notice. This begins with noting the rhymes in individual stanzas; and could lead on to how the poem moves the story along (or not). Opportunities for PSHE are also here i.e. what can precipitate confrontation between family members and how can that be resolved?

Where does poetry end and song begin? It’s hard to tell in Brian Moses’ poetry – and you certainly have to listen to his performances to get the full effect! Brian skillfully weaves percussion with the rhythms of the poem, and makes full use of pitch, pace and pause and bring out the drama. Listen to the way he relishes every syllable. I can’t stand Poetry! Bores me to death,” came the comment from next to me. “Great,” I thought, for next week I would be starting a 3 week unit of Poetry, and I was only in the first week of my 3rd Year Placement. What a confidence booster ;).

I actually introduced this poem by reading it myself, in the dullest way possible. The children recognised immediately I was making a point. Then we listened to the performance of Brian Moses, the poet, found on the link.

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Moses originally wanted to be a musician. [1] That original musical influence can still be heard in his work; he performs so that pauses, tone of voice and speed become a central part of the poem, such as the hiss in "The Snake Hotel" or the Tom Waits growl in "Walking with my Iguana". Find sources: "Brian Moses"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( October 2023) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)