I Have an Idea (and other poems) introduces perennial philosophical themes in the language of ordinary childhood experience. As a chapbook of poetry, it brings together some of the distinctions, concepts, principles, and problems that are fundamental to how we view ourselves and the world, the whole of reality.
 
Consider the principle of non-contradiction, which states that something cannot both be and not be at the same time in the same respect. This is a fundamental truth and basis for logical reasoning that might be understood by a child in this way: "I'm either sitting or standing / Climbing or sliding / Jumping or landing / Seeking or hiding / Coming or going / Or waiting in line, / But I never do both / At the same time."
 
The poems in this collection take a similar pattern as their approach, introducing early readers to philosophical themes that otherwise might not be encountered until secondary education, mostly in terms that only the developing mind of a child can rightly understand.