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

Then I decided to draw from and on my own imagination, and everything came out perfect.

We all need ways to express ourselves, and poetry is one of mine.

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.

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

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

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

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