Moira was born and educated in Scotland. She was a teacher, primary Head Teacher, College and University lecturer.

She has two grown-up daughters, three stepsons, a step-daughter and a Brown Burmese cat. When Allen, her lovely husband, died in 2003, she moved from Cardiff to Cornwall.

Moira is a children’s poet and author of a number of books for primary teachers (Belair/Folens), the most well-known are ‘Language in Colour’ and ‘Paint a Poem’. PoetrySpace is publishing a collection of Moira’s poems for children in 2012.

Recently, Moira has gone back to her first love, writing poetry for adults. She has had three collections published, ‘Light the Blue Touch Paper’, Iron
Press, 1986 & 1989, ‘Fresh out of Dragonflies’, Headlock, 1995 and ‘This Year, Next Year’, Marvin Katz Press, 2004, second edition from Author House, 2008.

She has a new collection, ‘Firebird’, due from Indigo Dreams Publishing later this year. She won third prize for her poem, ‘Night’s Spy-glass’, in the Welsh Poetry Competition, 2011.

See Moira’s website for more information.

Poems:

Elemental Words

The sky-rules say,
”˜Let your words soar
above the trees
to mingle with the birds.
Don’t tie them down, let them
call to us from
a thesaurus on the clouds.’

The water-rules say,
”˜Let your words float
on the waves
like gulls, dive to the depths
like cormorants. Don’t insist
on fair weather,
storms bring passion to poems.’

The fire-rules say,
”˜Let your words glow
among the flames.
Give them time to flicker,
to blaze into incandescent life.
Don’t douse them
with caution – let them catch fire.’

The earth-rules say,
”˜Let your words take root
in the ground.
Nurture them like tender plants
and give them space to grow.
Don’t be impatient –
words will flower across the page.’

Moira Andrew