I look for poetry in English because it's the only language I read.

When I began writing, I didn't read any other children's poets... I didn't want to be influenced until I'd found my own voice. Now I read them all.

Poetry seems to sink into us the way prose doesn't. I can still quote verses I learned when I was very young, but I have trouble remembering one line of a novel I just finished reading.

My wife used to tell me one of my best qualities was that my feet don't smell, but I remember my brother's did when we were kids.

I would go to sketch groups and draw. I really enjoyed the subject matter, but I wasn't good at it.

She comes by night, in fearsome flight, in garments black as pitch, the queen of doom upon her broom, the wild and wicked witch.

I'm working now on a collection of Shakespearean sonnets, about 100 of them, that I may publish if anyone's interested. My take on life is a little different from the bard's.