I've been thinking about this thread again, and it seems to me that when we're discussing poetry as a profession, it's important to define the way we're using our terms. For instance, I can think of four common meanings for "a professional":
(a) Someone who has earned a professional-level degree qualifying them to Do The Thing
(b) Someone who Does The Thing as their occupation or career
(c) Someone who has achieved a high level of skill and mastery in the Doing of The Thing
(d) Someone who is paid money to Do The Thing
So which do we mean? There can be overlap between all four of them with any of the others, but of course there isn't always.
I've been paid money, sometimes very good money, by people who want to publish or use my poems, but I don't have an MFA (if we consider than a 'professional' degree), don't look to poetry as my primary occupation, and I certainly wouldn't claim to have mastered the genre. So, am I a professional poet? Maybe not; but maybe.
(And this doesn't even touch any of the mental subdivisions of "professionalism" we might have in terms of poetry in particular: having other people publish your work for free; having other people publish your work for pay; publishing a chapbook; winning a contest; publishing a collection; being named poet laureate; blah blah blah etc.)
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