What makes a poet?

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'?....