Nature's Words About Helen Moore

A professional poet/environmental artist-writer based near Bath, in Somerset, S.W. England. With a passion for Nature and spiritual ecology, I seek through my work to help shape a healthier and fairer world for all beings; to raise consciousness about the other-than-human species with whom we share our home; and to envision the transition to a sustainable future. My approach might be characterized as 'Art for Earth's Sake', after Resurgence Magazine (no. 223.)

"For art to be relevant, artists must address the social and spiritual issues of our time...."

With literary degrees from Oxford and Edinburgh Universities, a background in teaching, and an informal schooling over 8 years with Edinburgh's Beltane Fire Society, I have strong academic, artistic and performance experience, which I bring to my writing and community arts work. I am available to lead environmentally oriented creative writing workshops with children (primary year 4 upwards), young people and adults. I can also offer illustrated talks about the effects of climate change on the natural world, and on deep ecology and eco-feminism.

I regularly perform my ecopoetry at environmental conferences around the UK, and have shared platforms with modern visionaries such as Joanna Macy, Mathew Fox, Vandana Shiva, Thomas Berry, Patrick Holden and Satish Kumar. I’ve also made appearances at a variety of festivals, including the Hay Festival, the Bristol Schumacher Lectures and the Big Green Gathering. Other community events to which I’ve contributed have been opening a community garden in London; marking Remembrance Sunday at a Tree Festival, and annually writing and performing Wassail poems in my local community. From time to time I also collaborate with musician, Ken Masters, who accompanies me on recorder and cello. (See Performance/Reviews)

My ecopoetry and prose have appeared in a variety of magazines, journals and newspapers, such as Magma, Green Spirit journal, The Nail, The Source, The Scotsman, and anthologies including: The William Blake Birthday Book, Oxfam’s Poems for a Better Future, Living Rights: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Stories and Poems (Flame Books), and This Poem Is Sponsored By…(Corporate Watch). I have also been a guest poetry editor for Resurgence Magazine.

In December 2003 I won the annually awarded Bard of Bath title. As a modern Bard I draw on our ancient cultural heritage to reinterpret the role and responsibilities of the poet in today's world. I seek to bridge oral and literary traditions, developing my performance skills to make my poetry alive and accessible, and publishing it in as sustainable way as possible. (See Books/Photos/CD)

Winner of the Bard of Bath title 2003-4

In March 2006 I published my first non-fiction book – an illustrated Nature journal and intimate study of the effects of global warming on the countryside around my home and in other parts of the UK and Ireland. Entitled, Changing Nature: Eco-Notes of a Digital Woman, the book appeared in the centenary year of the famous Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady, which I used as a yardstick for comparing natural phenomena over the past 100 years. The project ran in parallel to the BBC's Spring- and Autumnwatch, and Jill Attenborough of the Woodland Trust kindly wrote the foreword to the book.

In January this year I helped launch the Bath Poetry Cafe, which now runs once a month in the bistro at The Mission Theatre, Corn Street, Bath. Other projects for 2008 include publishing a children's story about climate change - Hope and the Magic Martian, and helping to establish the Green Arts Network in the West of England... more details here: