On Poetry Street

If you’ve been enjoying Joseph Coelho’s Poetry Prompts then you’re also going to love Brian Moses’ On Poetry Street. This new collection contains a year’s worth of poems (52 so one a week), each one springing from an idea or ‘what if’: ‘In the Land of Yesterday’ or ‘In the Hollywood Lost Property Box’ for example, or ‘If I Could Travel Back in Time’. The poems are playful, provocative, full of wordplay and intriguing images as well as with rhyme and rhythm as you’d expect from a poet of Moses’ calibre and experience. They’re not just for reading or performing though, each poem is also a poem starter with Moses encouraging readers to take them as jumping off points for poems of their own. And why wouldn’t you after reading this? He makes it look if not easy definitely doable and great fun. Take the poem ‘Still To Do …’ for example which lists in rhyming couplets the things the poet hasn’t yet done:

Still not painted a new Mona Lisa.
Still not straightened the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Still haven’t taught the Moon how to sneeze.
Still not run a race on my knees.

Young people will be itching to try out rhymes, especially as the curiouser the undone tasks, the better. Notes at the end contain accessible and inspiring tips on using rhyme, rhythm and repetition; a defence of list poems – also great for young would-be poets; and a description of what Moses calls ‘Research poems’, where browsing the internet or books provides the material to create poems such as ‘Villages’. Entertaining black and white illustrations from Mark Elvins add to the appeal. Now – together – let’s take a walk down Poetry Street!