Conversations with children are great inspiration for poetry. Lots of my poems feature lines which are inspired by phrases or words children have said to me. This poem is a good indication of how my evening went today – if you can’t beat ’em, write poetry about them!

Think about the things children are interested in – you can still cover big “grown up” topics in children’s poetry but it is how you present them on the page that will determine whether they work or not. The poems need to talk to their audience in a way which makes them engage, so why not write from their perspective? How do children talk to each other? How do they talk to adults? How do THEY see the world?

Keep an ear out for interesting phrases or conversations that might work well as poems.