I have felt at times with groups of children that I was really being what every poet would like to be - a bard in the old sense.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
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.
I like to think that I'm a sort of poet for our times.
I was one of those dark, quiet kids that wrote poetry.
The community of poets I belong to is not as close as it used to be, if only for the fact that our lives have become busier: jobs, children, and the like.
I was very lucky to have a mother who encouraged me to become a poet.
I've been trekking the hills and lanes of the British countryside for nearly four decades now and I've come to associate my passion with overexcited poets rather than pampered painters.
Frankly, writing poetry for children is plain old fun, and I consider myself blessed to have such a delightful career.
I've been influenced by poets as diverse as Dylan Thomas, Lewis Carroll, and Edgar Allan Poe.
I made myself into a poet because it was the first thing I really loved. It was an act of will.
I was completely devoted to reading and books from the age of seven. It took until I was 18 to have the confidence to write poetry.
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