I write the poems first, with only a few exceptions for odd reasons, where I'm given the illustration first.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I feel that I'm a poet first. Not only was poetry the first genre in which I wrote, it's the genre that serves as the basis for my practice as a writer.
I'm a poet first and foremost, before the modelling.
I sometimes talk about the making of a poem within the poem.
I began the way nearly everybody I ever heard of - I began writing poetry. And I find that to be quite usual with writers, their trying their hand at poetry.
My works really begin in a very simple way. Sometimes it's an image, and sometimes it's words I might write, like a fragment of a poem.
Once I have the story in my head, I write it down. The illustrations usually come last.
I don't try to call myself a poet. But I know that my stuff is pretty literal, in that the themes are pretty simple and on the surface.
They say poets write mostly for themselves; if anyone else likes it, well and good, if not, it doesn't matter; certainly, not to me.
I've always been a 'write first' artist: the drawings are always in service of the writing.
My first book was poetry, but I didn't write it first. I wrote it third. So my first two books were prose.