POETRY IS NOT PANTS

Yesterday i saw my brand new book - POETRY IS NOT PANTS - for the first time. I held it and sniffed it and looked at it. Its always a real buzz to see a book, a real book with my name on it. Bit exciting and a bit weird. It always gets me thinking about books and stuff. I never planned to be a children's poet, i didn't even know there was such a job really!! Lots of people write books that get get read by anyone else. Lots of people call me a writer and i am (poems don't write themselves!! ) but i always feel that i am a performer first. I have been performing in some way since 1981, first as a drummer, then as a stand up comedian and now as a poet. I spend a lot more hours a year reading my poems out that writing them. If i didn't read my poems out in schools and get paid for doing it then i would have to drive a van or something. To be a poet, a full time professional poet, then you HAVE to read your poems out, you HAVE to perform then to anyone who will listen, sometimes you perform them to people who don't listen!!! Though not too much of that these days!!! And i think that is only right. I always say that poems are not finished until they have been read out and heard by somebody else. Its only then that your poems come alive and takes off and surprises you. I love surprising myself. I keep on being amazed that i perform and write poems for a job, even now after nearly 10 years of doing it. In fact its my tenth year next year, 10 whole years of getting away with it!!!!! bring on the next ten, thats what i say!!!! Lets keep on being amazed!!!