Never say never... it can be embarrassing

I have always loved and admired poetry. The best poems make your mind sing. I still remember poetry I loved in my childhood (favourites included The King's Breakfast and The Invaders by AA Milne, Walter de la Mare's Silver and The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes). And I have studied poetry in my journey through tertiary education - I particularly enjoyed Keats, Coleridge, Donne and Arnold - and I have plenty of poetry books from the past and present, overseas and NZ poets (Kate Camp, Hone Tuwhare, James Brown and many others). There are other poets I am keen to try out - e.e.cummings and Emily Dickinson. Rhyming, poetic picture books are lyrical lovelies that stay in the mind and on the tongue - by rhyming geniuses like Lynley Dodd, Margaret Mahy and Dr. Suess, to name a few. And yet I have been very shy about my own poetry, both writing it and sharing it. I have not considered myself a poet and I have often looked at the poetry of others with envy. The best make it look effortless and natural. Like sirens calling they lure you on to the rocks, dashing your poetic hopes there. But sometimes...just sometimes... an idea turns up refusing to be anything but a poem. It is not my fault. I do as I am told. But once written, they have stayed in my drawer, or in a file on my hard-drive. Occasionally they have been wheeled out on my blog, (like trolls are, I have been emboldened by the relative anonymity of social media) because it's my blog and I can post if I want to. But I am not a poet. Really. And I couldn't write a rhyming story if I tried. Never.

Except last week I was contacted about having a poem of mine included in an anthology of children's poetry, edited by the wonderful Paula Green, and to be published next year by Random. And then on Friday I heard from a publisher about a rhyming picture book story I had submitted. It's coming out late 2014/2015. And several people have pointed out that the text of While You Are Sleeping is a poem. Well that snuck up on me. It's a bit awkward really. Never say never. It's likely to come back and bite you. Although sekritly I am very pleased.