What makes a poet? - David Williams's Blog

I have often heard it said ' Ah so you are a poet ' simply because I write poetry but does that actually make me/us poets? What constitutes being a 'poet' if a person writes one poem in their whole life does that make them a poet? Do you have to be published? Does it have to be your full time job? Is it what you are know for? Where are the rules on being a poet?

I am a professional Advanced Driving Instructor I have passed many exams and advanced driving tests to become one and I can hold my head up high and state clearly that I am an Advanced Driving Instructor, but where or how does it state that we are poets?

I like to make furniture in my spare time but that does not make me a carpenter.

I have had this debate many times in my poetry/writing groups and no-one has yet explained it to me, a 'writer' and I am not demonising writers per se, but all of the writers of stories that I personally know, all baulk at the thought of writing in such a constricted manner of a poetry form.

I feel there is something special about being known as a poet, to me it lifts you above the title of 'writer' but I still don't know what actually makes a person a 'poet'....to this day I say to the people who ask me 'are you a poet? My answer is always 'I write poetry, does that make me a poet'?....

Michael Smith Date: 4/1/2013 12:17:00 PM In the scheme of life it just don't seem relevant. If a person claims to be a poet but doesn't write very well and never has been recognized who am I to say "no, you are not a poet"? Login to Reply

Donald Williams Date: 3/27/2013 2:13:00 PM Excellent thinking David, This could fall under many areas, as well. Does writing a book make you a writer, or (like you say) writing poetry make you a poet. Of coarse if you love to write then by definition alone, you do in fact write, hence, you are a writer of words. The same principal can be applied for example, to a Chef or a cook. Now in my humble opinion a Chef is educated in the art of cooking and flavors, while I prefer to call myself a cook. So if I am not educated and I write, then what am I called if not a writer? I would think a writer does in fact write with words, as opposed to an Author who is actually educated in the forms of writing. What are your thoughts? Login to Reply

Tanya Harrington Date: 3/26/2013 2:18:00 PM Lmao, So many poets who say they aren't poets. Guess it all depends on your definition. I love all the comments! Yes or no, we all love poetry, so keep on writing and posting. If someone calls u a poet, take the compliment, if someone says ur not- don't take it to heart. Wonderful blog David. :-) Tanya Login to Reply

Harry Horsman Date: 3/26/2013 5:21:00 AM Hi David this blog is a copy from cyndi's blog on your question?..... Well David, i'm a weaver by trade, and as a young man i was good at it....especially the creative side of the task... so maybe i could say i am a weaver of cloth, which is no different to being a writer of poetry. designs and words all come from the same place one's mind, a self induced creation...so i'll get personal with you David,, and i'll tell you the answer to your question,, yes i believe fervently you are a poet, just as i would believe you a weaver upon seeing the finish goods Login to Reply

Joe Flach Date: 3/25/2013 6:01:00 PM David, I just wonder, if there was an absolute answer to your question and you were to discover it - would it change the way you look at things? Would you behave differently, to achieve the goal of being a poet? Or, would you sleep better knowing, definitively, whether or not you were indeed a poet? So, I wonder, what difference does it make? Who cares what differentiates a writer from a poet? I write poems - to some who follow me (the one or two), I may be considered a poet; to some friends and family, I am considered a nut job, pain in the butt, writer of gibberish; to those who don't know me, I am a nobody and a nothing. And yet, I write stuff. Maybe I am a stuff-et! Login to Reply David Williams Date: 3/26/2013 2:03:00 AM Hi Joe I don't think there is an absolute answer, if there is I haven't heard it yet!...

Joe Flach Date: 3/25/2013 4:44:00 PM Ah yes, labels. We get so caught up on labels. I wonder why that is? By having a child, you are a parent. This does not mean you are a good parent, a bad parent, a professional parent, a loved parent or a hated parent - but, you are a parent. By giving birth to a poem, you are a poet. Good, bad, great, awful - who knows - but poet ye be. When people ask me if I consider myself a poet, I say, "Read my poetry and then you tell me - am I a poet?" Just one man's opinion - but, my advice - who cares how we are labelled - just be what you are. A rose by any other name ... Login to Reply Debbie Guzzi Date: 3/25/2013 6:45:00 PM just answer hell YES Joe and I love writing.

Debbie Guzzi Date: 3/25/2013 10:44:00 AM I don't think you should hesitate at all, you ARE a poet because you write poetry& a carpenter & all the above mentioned things and MUCH MORE I am sure. The question really is are you GOOD at or an EXPERT at any of the above. The judge of that in our culture would be 'do you sell' Login to Reply David Williams Date: 3/25/2013 2:41:00 PM I think that deep down that is the problem, I don't think I am good enough to be a poet...

Painted Hunter Date: 3/25/2013 8:27:00 AM David, I wrote a poem once called, "I am not a poet" I will have to look for it. It covers what you are asking here, but doesn't answer your question. I agree with you. I also make furniture (rustic) but I'm no carpenter. I've been carving longer than I've been writing, but I not a master carver. I've been welding for ten years, but I'm not a welder....or am I? Login to Reply

Irfana Ali Bhat Date: 3/25/2013 7:12:00 AM when words spring out of the heart ..when inanimate things talk to you ...when your words stir someones heart... when you try to define the puzzle called life ....then you are definitely a poet ....yes,you are a poet....:) Login to Reply

Deb Wilson Date: 3/24/2013 6:54:00 PM Just as a sculptor creates something magical from a lump of clay is called just that...a sculptor, then one who writes poetry is a poet...I think it is an art form as well but one that needs to be practiced and made an experience to grow from and learn. I believe we are all poets who engage in this art of poetry. Yet you can always become a better poet or a better sculptor of words that others will want to read and maybe shake their heads and say "Ah yes" Login to Reply Richard D Seal Date: 3/24/2013 8:54:00 PM "Ah yes" Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 8:06:00 PM checkmate

Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:07:00 PM Hello POETS, how are all of you POETS on the soup doing??? I am confused... yes no yes no.. yes no.. your wrong your right, your wrong your right..... anyways! Everyone on the soup is here because we enjoy writing poetry and want feedback, we are searching for the comfort of belonging to a community of poets. STOP KIDDING YOURSELF!! This place is called "POETry Soup" We are not called "put a poem on here soup." below I read many comments and don't agree. I think many of us throughout this world are poets, with or without writing a poem. Nature is a poet herself, and without her many poems would not stand. Do you want to break Mother Natures heart, :-( :-( LOL Go and tell her she is no poet. So please POETS, stop breaking my heart ... Login to Reply David Williams Date: 3/25/2013 2:34:00 AM Tex, yes we write poetry but it doesn't answer the question of 'what makes a poet'?.....

Harry Horsman Date: 3/24/2013 5:18:00 PM dont know David, i started writing suddenly out of the blue over 30 years ago, and kept it a secret for about 5 years, then i wrote a poem about New Zealand's exploits in the 1982 soccer world cup, and had the manager of that team, who i knew have a look at it.. the next day it was all over, the national and local newspapers in the country, and had 5 minutes of fame,, but as being a poet, i've never thought about it, and i've never told anyone that is what i do either...still you have not got a answer your question,, well maybe we are all writers of poetry, and it is up to someone else to tell us,, if one studies poetry and writes it at oxbridge, maybe they are poets, Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:34:00 PM Remember Harry, poetry can mean nothing at all to one person, However it can mean the world to another! Harry Horsman Date: 3/24/2013 5:29:00 PM again i think opinions come in to it as well, there is such a lot of snobbery attach to poetry here in the uk, where as oz/nz one's ability to write something and to have it read was seen as a far better achievement, than here in the uk. mainly because the understanding across the culture is far more recognized in over there. so good question,

David Williams Date: 3/24/2013 4:59:00 PM I think I am destined to walk a lonely road, but I will continue to write poetry in my own way....I wake myself up in the middle of the night with a poem in my head and I have to go and write it down, I think in syllables, I speak in syllables, I analyse speech as I hear it... but I am not a poet! Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:27:00 PM LOL, Char Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:26:00 PM you know what makes a drug addict a drug addict.. The need and feed of using drugs... Charlotte Puddifoot Date: 3/24/2013 5:32:00 PM my diagnosis is that you are definitely a poet, david! what you're describing are all classic symptoms of the affliction lol

Cyndi Macmillan Date: 3/24/2013 4:24:00 PM David, I'm far too long winded to fit my answer in here... lol... so UNpoetic, that is! Now, can I please post a response blog? I promise it does not contradict yours, is not mean spirited and if anything may have many of you thinking, oh yes, that IS me, to a T. Won't be able to do this till tomorrow night. Sunday nights are all for hubby :) PS-- this has been in me since I saw a comment from Tim (?) I think it was... hmmm... Tim? You out there? xox Cyndi Give a kiss to the Mrs., too! Login to Reply

David Williams Date: 3/24/2013 4:15:00 PM Craig, I attended a poetry evening a few weeks ago in aid of a local charity and read some of my work and a few days later I was walking through my village and i heard a lady behind me say to her to friend 'that's the poet we saw the other night' and it jarred with me as I do not call myself a poet , so I still ask the question 'what makes a poet' .... Login to Reply

Charlotte Puddifoot Date: 3/24/2013 3:10:00 PM well, I think I've always been a writer because I started telling stories verbally at the age of three before I could even write and I wrote throughout my childhood and teens and had my first poem published at sixteen...poetry feels like an intrinsic part of me and I'm definitely someone who writes from the heart with flashes of inspiration that strike seemingly from nowhere; it's rare that I write purely as an 'exercise' which is why I struggle with contests - a lot of my poetry is quite autobiographical; I also struggle with depression which seems to be quite common amongst writers...interesting reading all the different responses from people! Login to Reply Charlotte Puddifoot Date: 3/24/2013 5:19:00 PM what turned me to writing poetry was reading the poetry of others and thinking to myself "I'm going to give that a try..." I think anybody who writes poetry is a poet; the question is: are they a good or a bad one? I suppose a true poet of the heart is someone who, whatever happens to them in life, feels an urge to pin it down on paper and create art from it... David Williams Date: 3/24/2013 4:06:00 PM Charlotte i too had my first 'poem' published at 14 but what makes the difference between a writer and a poet?? what turned you into writing poetry??

Carol Eastman Date: 3/24/2013 2:36:00 PM Awww you guys... It's simple... To be a poet you have to be a little bit crazy... I think I fit that bill... LOL Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:45:00 PM We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. BY:~~ Dead Poet's Society

Andrea Dietrich Date: 3/24/2013 2:33:00 PM hahaha, I liked Yasmin's definition best. Chris's is so altruistic and noble that I think it qualifies hardly any of us as poets. I have never considered myself a really true "poet", David. I am a writer of poetry, as Chris said. I do not go around having poetry come to me out of the breeze. Once in a blue moon I will feel compelled to write of something beautiful and it just comes to me. those times are rare, but I guess in those moments I can call myself "a poet of heart" I would say that I am a writer. I love to write. Poetry just became the best form for me to express myself socially and I think all of us here, in some way or another, are contributing to keeping poetry alive. Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:21:00 PM Don't be so hard, and not consider yourself a true poet Miss Poet Queen Andrea-- A poet is someone who writes, and expresses him or herself, in any manner of art. Poetry is hard to explain, all we know,, how to express it with feelings and thoughts on paper Andrea Dietrich Date: 3/24/2013 4:08:00 PM I like what Suz said, if people are calling you a poet, go with it! I think there is no real answer, Craig. Many people are called teachers, but are all of them truly teachers? Well, you get my drift! David Williams Date: 3/24/2013 2:52:00 PM Andrea I like this answer, though it still doesn't answer my question...

Ruben Alejandro Hernandez Diaz Date: 3/24/2013 12:11:00 PM What make us poets, are our experiences, our emotions, our personalities, our intellect, our being, our life, our heart, our soul... Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:13:00 PM Nicely said Ruben... all it takes is believing... David Williams Date: 3/24/2013 12:17:00 PM or one who writes simply... Ruben Alejandro Hernandez Diaz Date: 3/24/2013 12:12:00 PM Not everyone that simply writes, is a writer...

Charmaine Chircop Date: 3/24/2013 11:57:00 AM very interesting blog David and i guess Chris nailed it..Charma : ) Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:43:00 PM A poet is a man who puts up a ladder to a star and climbs it while playing a violin. BY: ~Edmond de Goncourt

Brian Strand Date: 3/24/2013 10:32:00 AM Hi David,I think you are a poet when you 'dare' to describe oneself as a poet.It takes courage and imagination to so do in this day and age.What 'makes' a poet is another question, possibly like any other art or craft there is an apprenticeship to serve.Rgds Brian Login to Reply Poet Destroyer A Date: 3/24/2013 6:11:00 PM Brian, the soup is one of the best place on the internet. And as a wanna be poet. I am happy here, and enjoy the feedback I get as a poet.