Quincy writes

Quincy:
Have you seen all these creatures in your poems, or are you just making it up?

Philip:
I'm not a deep sea diver, so I haven't seen the ones that live at the bottom of the ocean. I've talked to scientists from the museum who have. And most of us these days have seen some brilliant wildlife documentaries on the TV. There are some very ordinary things, too, in the poems — like the tiny flower called Ivy-Leafed Toadflax. I bet you've seen that on a pavement or a wall, but you might not have known that's what it was. And OK, I've made up a few things, in the poems that play an imagination game. I've always told the readers when I've done that, though.

Published: 19 June, 2018

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