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	Gerard Benson is one of Britain's best-loved children's poets, his work has been widely published and anthologised, and he has edited an outstanding anthology, This Poem Doesn't Rhyme, which won the Signal Poetry Award in 1991. To Catch An Elephant contains the best of his two critically-acclaimed books of poems for children, The Magnificent Calisto and Evidence of Elephants( nominated for the Carnegie Medal), as well as a number of new poems. Bursting with magic, animals, stars and warm humour, To Catch An Elephant is a wonderful collection of poetry which every child of reading age should own.	To Catch An Elephant Published by Smith/ Doorstop Books ISBN 1-902382-40-4 October 2002 To order a copy click here Or alternatively visit: Bags Of Books
© Gerard Benson
Gerard Benson was born and brought up in London. He was evacuated for a while during the Second World War - so he came to enjoy the country as well as the big city. He has written poetry since he was a child but has earned his living in many ways. He has been a sailor, labourer, window-cleaner, waiter, washer-up, market researcher, actor, architect's clerk, teacher, postman, temp, and lecturer, among other things - and of course a poet and editor. With two friends he runs the 'Poems on the Underground' scheme in London. For many years he toured, performing poetry and music with the famous Barrow Poets.		Poem To Be Recited On Realising You've Forgotten Your Passport Oh. No! © Gerard Benson
You are the first person ever to be interviewed for Man In The Moon! How excited are you? I'm jumping up and down.
*Are you frightened of spiders?* Not at all. Who do you think I am? Little Miss Muffet? But I am scared of (you're not going to believe this) hot-water bottles.		The Cat And The Pig Once, when I wasn't very big I made a song about a pig who ate a fig and wore a wig and nimbly danced the Irish jig.
Can you stand on one leg, pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time? Yes. Easy. I can also play Rossini's William Tell Overture on my teeth with a pencil. And I can recite the alphabet backwards in 4 seconds. Perhaps I'm a bit of a show-off.		And when I was as small as THAT I made a verse about a cat who ate a rat and wore a hat and sat (you've guessed) upon the mat. And that, I thought, was that.
*Which are your favourite biscuits?* Squashed flies.		But yesterday upon my door I heard a knock; I looked and saw a hatted cat a wigged pig who chewed a rat who danced the jig on my doormat!
*What is your favourite animal?* Squashed flies. Oops - wrong question! No. Meerkats (that's today). Tomorrow it might be a jaguar or a vole. I really like cats.		They looked at me with faces wise out of their bright enquiring eyes, "May we come in? For we are yours, pray do not leave us out of doors. We are the children of your mind let us come in. Be kind. Be kind."
Do you have to be brainy to be a poet? Not really. Some are very brainy - but lots aren't. Yeats couldn't spell. Clare left school at ten or eleven. Many poets are bad at maths (not me - I'm quite good). But really no true poets are stupid.		So now upon my fireside mat there lies a tireless pussy cat who all day long chews on a rat and wears a hat. And round him like a whirligig dancing a frantic Irish jig munching a fig, cavorts a big wig-headed pig.
How old were you when you wrote your first poem? Five or six. See my poem 'The Cat and The Pig'.		They eat my cakes and drink my tea. There's hardly anything for me! And yet I cannot throw them out for they are mine without a doubt. But when I'm at my desk tonight I'll be more careful what I write.
Where was your first poem published? School magazine.		© Gerard Benson
How long does it take you to write a poem? It varies. 'Bomb Poem' took me almost a year to complete - though it's only 39 lines. 'Lim' took very nearly 20 seconds.
How many poems have you written? I've never counted. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. Oh and a few more hundreds. I wrote two yesterday.
What inspired you to become a poet? Constance Davis (a teacher), Kathleen James (another), John Masefield ( a poet). And the sound of the English language - and something in my heart.
Do you illustrate your own work? No. I often doodle in the margin when I'm writing. But I don't actually illustrate. My wife, Cathy, does that.
Do you write your poems with a pen or do you use a computer? A pen or a pencil.
What is your favourite word, and why? Umbrella (just say it to yourself slowly). I also like bassoon, perimeter, snow, floccinaucinihilipilification, and prong.
If you had not become a poet, which job do you think you would be doing now? See my Poem 'If I Hadn't Been A Writer'	If I hadn't Been A Writer (Lines written while filling in a questionnaire for Man In The Moon) If I hadn't been a writer, I might have been a vet, or a bishop with a mitre or a pilot in a jet; or a plumber in the summer when the weather's nice and hot, and a printer in the winter to be indoors when it's not. Or a teacher or a preacher, or a boxer or a ref, or a proctor or a doctor, or a waiter or a chef; or a saddler or a sailor, or a stuntman (that's exciting!) or a fiddler or a tailor. Still, I guess I'll stick to writing. © Gerard Benson
Do you have a favourite poet? Leaving aside top man William Shakespeare: Browning and Keats and Blake all delight me. And Stevie Smith and Ted Hughes.
Do you have an all time favourite poem? Either Jabberwocky or Blake's Tyger.
Do you have any sensible or not- so- sensible advice for young poets? Sensible: Read a lot. Write a lot (something every day). Be honest. Don't try to be clever, but try things out - forms (like the Haiku, the Limerick, the Cinquain, the Acrostic, the Clerihew, the Chain Poem). Try and write a song. Don't be a slave to rhyme. Play. Play with ideas like alliteration, repetition, puns etc. Share your ideas with other young poets (it works!). And read a lot (or have I said that already?) Oh yes, and read a lot. It's quite important to read poetry slowly. Naturally enough, good readers rejoice in reading swiftly. But that way all the music and mouth play are lost. Reading aloud is good, or if in a quiet place (class or library or whatever) reading with the lips moving.		Duffy The white cat furies in a squirm of purring He writhes in his delight, rolling his restless head he tunnels my ready lap. He loops his length hooping his lithe spine The white cat settles, licks at a stiffened leg, then sleeps - a lazy shape. The white cat dreams of snow fields, the small musical pipes of birds, licking his lips in sleep. © Gerard Benson
Rather less sensible: Copy poems out of books and put your name at the bottom. Put your arm round your book while you're writing. Make sure to use a few long impressive words that you don't understand (I recommend 'eleemosynary', 'abrasive' and ' preternatural').