I wouldn’t say that I have ‘influences’ — people with work that has shaped my own. I’d like to think I’m fairly original. However, I do have authors and poets that I admire, whose work I wouldn’t mind having written.
Some of them are: Lewis Carroll [Dodgson] (whom I’ve mentioned here multiple times), Edward Lear (whom you might know from The Owl and The Pussycat), and Dr Seuss [Geisel]. No surprises for these, since they are all in a similar direction. I especially admire Dr Seuss’s commercial success. Another author that I admire is Stephen King (who doesn’t?) because he writes ‘dark’ fiction like some of mine. I don’t know Stephen King, but I wonder what he’s like in real life. Is he normal but just writes insane, or is he unsettling to hang out with?
A more-contemporary poet that I feel a kinship with, although I’ll admit I’m pretty unfamiliar with his work, is Shel Silverstein. (I just now googled him and found that he’s been dead for 15 years.) He wrote some kooky poems that would feel at home among some of my stuff. I don’t know whether he wrote books or just poetry. Also, some of his work has distinct artwork — maybe he was also an artist? (Seems I should find out more about him.) What little I’ve read of his work seems nice and even inspirational. I chuckle inwardly because I think of myself as a ‘dark’ Shel Silverstein (in writing tone), but he had dark skin, so the wording of this view of myself makes me laugh. He looks a lot like a guy I currently work with who’s from Guadeloupe in the Caribbean.
ADDENDUM: Going through some of my old old stories, written as a teen, I’ve realized that Fredric Brown also figures into the mix. Some of my early stories are short, techy, and ‘clever’ like some of his.