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Walking with My Iguana

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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 ;).

To find out more about Brian Moses and his poetry, visit his blog at http://brian-moses.blogspot.co.uk/ and be inspired by his and others’ performance poems. So please, if you’re struggling to find poetic inspiration, feel free to use this amazing poem by Brian Moses, or indeed any others you may find on the Poetry Archive. Moses writes about the familiar – Deaths, football matches – and the peculiar – monsters, aliens and angels. 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". Intentionally, I have not included the whole of the poems in this blog as some of them are fairly long. The whole versions are all easily found for free online.

A new book of history poems: 1066 & Before That (co-written with Roger Stevens), picture books The Frog Olympics and Dreamer: Saving Our Wild World (OtterBarry Books) and his childhood memoir Keeping Clear of Paradise Street have just been published. I needed to do something or run the risk of losing the children’s engagement and probably the result I wanted from my entire placement as first impressions always count! This was an important learning experience for me but also, I’m sharing this because it is a great poem. I am aware, like my poem-deriding colleague from earlier, that poetry can be dull – but only if it is made dull. And this is the same with any topic/theme/skill I think…although fractions I’m still working on! 😉 Ahlberg has created a lovely simple structure to the poem which plays out as a dialogue between the whining child and the indifferent teacher- and we’ve all met that kid Derek Drew!!!

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. This poem was written by Brian Moses to celebrate an unusual sighting on the beach at Hastings, where he lives. Year 3 and 4 used it to think about animal movement and adverbs, and had a go at performing it themselves.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.

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. What primary classroom would be complete without Please Mrs Butler? Let’s face facts, this poem is virtually your birth right if you are in junior school and is certainly a poem that every teacher should read to their children. It’s iconic, it’s cheeky and it’s fun- what more could we ask for? Brian also runs writing workshops and performs his own poetry and percussion shows. To date he has given over 3000 performances in schools, libraries, theatres and at festivals throughout the UK and abroad. 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.Opportunities for PSHE are also here i.e. what can precipitate confrontation between family members and how can that be resolved? 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.

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