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.

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.

The sound of a word is at least as important as the meaning.

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

After I'd produced about two dozen pen and ink drawings, one evening I decided that they needed poems to accompany them. I still have no idea where that notion came from, but it took me about two hours to produce verses for these creatures.

Otherwise I don't read much adult poetry at all, because I'm not smart enough and mostly I don't get it.

A poet is not something you become; a poet is something you are.