Frankly, writing poetry for children is plain old fun, and I consider myself blessed to have such a delightful career.

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.

Writing gives me the opportunity to explore ideas, play with language, solve problems, use my imagination, and draw on my own childhood.

I'm mostly influenced by life, what's around me, and my own childhood.

Children seem naturally drawn to poetry - it's some combination of the rhyme, rhythm, and the words themselves.

I keep a guitar around while writing and will improvise music. I do this for several reasons, such as that it's fun, and sometimes it helps me with the meter.

I accept challenges, I have always done that in writing.