What are your thoughts about reading your poetry in Cobourg at the POW! Festival's Saturday morning Children's event?

I always love to introduce children (and their adults) to both delight with language and discovery of themselves that happen with poetry.

Please tell us about your most recently published book and also a little about any other books you've had that "saw print."

Looking For Snow Fleas, my latest for younger readers, ranges the gamut of poetry -- from patterns to free verse, from the absurd to the serious, from the real to the imaginary -- with the added bonus of talking points and creative activities for each poem.

At POW!, do you plan to read pieces from your book (or books)?
Do you plan to read new, unpublished work?

I will perform pieces from all five of my books but most especially from the new book.

How would you describe your poetry?

I stay true to experiences of childhood with their large component of the unexplained and incomprehensible.

When did you start writing poetry and what prompted it?

I started when I was in Grade one and my first poem was publsihed, in Chatelaine magaizne, when I was 17. After I was an adult, I discovered that my great-great grandfather had witten poetry and his journal still existed. My paternal grandmother and my maternal grandfather had written poetry. My mother wrote poetry also but she died when I was 8 and so I had not learned about this family trait and just supposed that I was a misfit.

What inspires you to put pen to paper / fingers to keyboard?

Books, daily events, the news, conversations, performing for others, hearing others perform -- all these things can trigger a memory, an idea. It is easier to describe what stops me -- being too tired, too busy, too stressed. When am rested and not so busy, then ideas just bubble up. Of course, I'm now well-trained to grab them when they appear.

Can you describe (a little) your writing process in creating a new poem?

Visualization is important when I have an idea. Playing with the language is important. Listening to the people in the poem is too. Saying it out loud. Moving the words around on the page. I check for a few things such as line breaks (breathing spaces), tense, pronoun, etc.

The POW! Festival is built on the notion that poetry should not be relegated to an existence as "a niche art form" that the average person doesn't care about.
How do you respond to that?

In my experience as a poet, poetry workshop leader, and poetry presenter, I have always left the audience with an appreciation of the fun, joy, and importance of poetry. That's my job.