Diana Moore

Diana Moore is a poet, performer, playwright and author based in Oxfordshire.

Her first book A FISHY COAT TALE AND OTHER POEMS came about after visiting a school where the teacher asked Diana for copies of her work following a fun and interactive session with children on 'Creating and Writing Humorous Poetry'. Diana decided to write a book (rather than handing out loose leaf A4 pages!). She spent some months deciding which of a large number of poems to include in a book - it turned out that animals, birds and fish were popular. She then enlisted the help of her son, graphic designer Nicholas Moore to illustrate the book. The poems in this book are suitable for a wide age range, i.e. from 4 years to adults.

Her second book: A VISITOR TO THE FOREST is a (scripted) poem designed for performance which is based on Paolo Uccello's 'The Hunt in the Forest. The painting is situated in the Italian Renaissance Gallery and her book is on sale in the Ashmolean Museum shop. Performances so far include:

• Solo, by Diana as part of an ongoing series of poetry tours in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, where the book is now on sale.

• A collaborative rendition with an opera singer and an actor during the ‘Playground on Fire’ Arts Festival at the Old Fire Station in Oxford. This included audience participation.

• Workshopped by students from Stagecoach Theatre Arts – a performing arts school - who devised their own takes on the work, sharing these with their principal and peers.

• A creative writing workshop at a secondary school with a group of advanced learners (age 14–15 years), who wrote their own poetry and performed the resulting work to their peers. (great feedback too).

Diana's third and most recent book (March 2017) is titled: 'Objects in the Ashmolean'. It is an illustrated art and poetry resource based on a small selection of objects from the vast collections held at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Diana says:

"This is a fun and creative learning resource for stimulating creative writing, performance work, reading and discussion.

The book will take you on a journey from Renaissance Italy to the Far East; you can time travel between ancient artefacts and works of modern art. Each poem begins with a short introduction letting you know some of the fascinating history of the object that inspired it.

Age guide is from around 10 years to adult, with some poems suitable for younger primary children and others aimed at age 12 years and above. Many of the poems are well suited to live performance; each one has been performed at the Ashmolean in its relevant gallery. You’ll find pieces in here that can be set to music or acted out. There is drama, humour, song and one poem that can be used as a prompt for mindfulness and meditation.

The object is for you to enjoy the objects, have a go at performing the poems - either as hinted at in the book, or in your own ways. Content includes: a scripted poem about Henry VIII and His Six Wives, a menu poem served on a Roman fish plate, a song lyric inspired by a ship in a storm and a mermaid… a flamingo calypso, and more… "

And here's a PREVIEW/REVIEW by Mathew Tobin, Senior Lecturer in English and Children's Literature at Oxford Brookes University in Oxford.

This is what Mat has to say about Diana's book, 'Objects in the Ashmolean'.

• The format of seeing the image, then the poem works very well, and the watermark behind is lovely. Visually the book is great.

• I enjoyed the wit of Two Bream and a Ray very much – humorous language play and a narrative which had me smiling throughout.

• The kiddies menu is just wonderful and I can imagine the whole conversation happening right there.

• The Henry play-poem is wonderful and is crying out to be performed and laughed at. A wonderful, informative piece of parodic poetry!

• I also thought the dual narrative in A Time to Bond was very clever indeed and would want my own class to take similar approaches with other paintings too.

• The Lobster and the Turkey shows the wonderful, tongue-in-cheek sense of humour that you have in which your deft play with words and ideas brings pleasure to the reading. It would sit very comfortably next to anything by Nash or Lear.

• I have to say it was a real pleasure reading through the book, Diana; so many different forms and poetic devices which makes the reading so rich and entertaining. It was a pleasure from cover to cover and makes me want to go spend time with the objects sharing your words and interpretations with them.

Mat goes on to suggest adding a few pictures of other objects from the museum with suggestions to the reader of creating their own poems or finding out the stories behind the objects too. I have a note added to my introduction in the book to this effect. With regard to further images, these would require copyright (to include in the book), and I decided to leave this open to the reader / teacher / group to go take a look at all the other objects in the museum and choose for themselves.

============================================

That's the end of the Preview/Review written by Mat Tobin

Senior Lecturer in English and Children’s Literature at

Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.

============================================

This latest book is also a follow on to 'A Visitor to the Forest', a poem designed for performance, as detailed in these author notes.

Diana is a regular contributor to the Poetry Tours at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. (more recently re-named Ekphrasis Poetry). She started her journey into performance poetry and writing for exhibitions and other places and spaces in 2012 with new and original poems specially written for the Edward Lear Bicentenary exhibition - along with workshops for families such as 'Runcible Rhymes' at the Ashmolean, and 'Mr Lear's Birthday Party' at the Story Museum.

Diana Moore has performed many poems and song lyrics based on art and objects in the Ashmolean Museum including: 'Pan Listening to Echo' based on a bronze inkstand (Italian Renaissance gallery), a lyrical piece based on a painting by Bicci di Lorenzo of St Nicholas of Bari Banishing a Storm (early Italian Art), a humorous poem-script on Henry VIII and his Six Wives (England Room), and a poem/lyric/soundscape titled: A Visitor to the Forest, which is inspired by Paolo Uccello's masterpiece: 'The Hunt in the Forest'.

Diana offers lively and creative writing / poetry / peformance sessions to adults and children from age 5 years upwards. Please get in touch if you'd like to find out more information via www.diana-moore.com