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.
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 write the poems first, with only a few exceptions for odd reasons, where I’m given the illustration first.
Otherwise I don’t read much adult poetry at all, because I’m not smart enough and mostly I don’t get it.
My wife used to tell me one of my best qualities was that my feet don’t smell, but I remember my brother’s did when we were kids.
There’s not too much difference between writing a picture book and writing a collection of a hundred poems or so, except that the bigger books take a lot longer to do.
My reading is extremely eclectic. Lately I’ve been teaching myself computer graphics, so I’m reading a lot about that. I read books of trivia, of facts.
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.
Frankly, writing poetry for children is plain old fun, and I consider myself blessed to have such a delightful career.