Poetry was Barbara Sellers's first love. She wrote her first poem at age nine, although she wrotemost of the poems in this book when she was 35 (the same age she is on the book cover).Sellers's early poems were humorous and made people laugh. She enjoyed entertaining friends andfamily members with her humorous poems, so she continued to pursue her passion to write more.Before long, instead of sitting down at a desk and waiting for inspiration to write her next poem, herpoems started coming to her naturally while she slept. In the middle of the night, she often awoke with anew poem on her mind. If she did not take out a pen and write it down, going back to sleep would be verydifficult. Originally, the first poem Sellers fell in love with was "Little Orphan Annie" by James WhitcombRiley. She read Riley's long poem so frequently that Sellers can still recite all four stanzas from memory, without notes.Sellers said some of the greatest poems ever written often have to be closely examined before anyonecan fully comprehend their meanings. However, many casual readers do not enjoy reading poems that aretoo cryptic to immediately decipher. That is why Sellers largely writes simplistic poems with messages thatare easy for anyone to understand.