Jack Prelutsky (born September 8, 1940) is an American writer of children's poetry who has published over 50 poetry collections. He was named a U.S. Children's Poet Laureate by the Poetry Foundation in 2006.
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.
It's Halloween! It's Halloween! The moon is full and bright And we shall see what can't be seen On any other night. Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls, Grinning goblins fighting duels Werewolves rising from their tombs, Witches on their magic brooms In masks and gown we haunt the street And knock on doors for trick or treat Tonight we are the king and queen, For oh tonight it's Halloween!
I look for poetry in English because it's the only language I read.
After I'd produced about two dozen pen and ink drawings, one evening I decided that they needed poems to accompany them. I still have no idea where that notion came from, but it took me about two hours to produce verses for these creatures.
I invented animals and birds - I had about two dozen. After working on them for six months, I sat down and just for fun wrote two dozen poems to accompany the drawings. It was for no one to every see, but a friend sent me in to an editor.
She comes by night, in fearsome flight, in garments black as pitch, the queen of doom upon her broom, the wild and wicked witch.
His blood is black and boiling hot, he gurgles ghastly groans. He'll cook you in his dinner pot, your skin, your flesh, your bones.
I've been influenced by poets as diverse as Dylan Thomas, Lewis Carroll, and Edgar Allan Poe.
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.
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.
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.
I accept challenges, I have always done that in writing.
The BALLPOINT PENGUINS, black and white, Do little else but write and write. Although they've nothing much to say, They write and write it anyway.
I would go to sketch groups and draw. I really enjoyed the subject matter, but I wasn't good at it.
Writing gives me the opportunity to explore ideas, play with language, solve problems, use my imagination, and draw on my own childhood.
The sound of a word is at least as important as the meaning.
I always knew would be some sort of artist, but didn't know what.
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.
Frankly, writing poetry for children is plain old fun, and I consider myself blessed to have such a delightful career.