[Julie Steiner]

I dunno, Roger and James. Arthur Rimbaud stopped producing poetry at age 20. When answering the question "Who was Arthur Rimbaud?" we certainly round up based on what he did in his youth, and say, "A poet," because that is what he is best known for. But I think it's fair to say that there was a period in Rimbaud's life when he was a poet, and another period in his life when wasn't.

It's fair to say the same about the many of us here who came to poetry-writing late in life, so why isn't it fair when the periods of non-activity come after productive periods, instead of before?

I concede that it's a lot fuzzier when those productive periods come in between non-productive periods. Personally, I think that those of us like myself who produce poetry in fitful little blips of activity, with long, long dry spells between them, are poets when we are engaging with the world in a poetic way (whether or not anything actually gets written then), but are not poets anymore when we aren't. But I don't have a problem with people who feel otherwise.

And I actually do wholeheartedly agree with James that the fallow periods are part of the poetry-producing process.

Does it matter? Probably not. It's just a thought exercise.

[Susan McLean]

Julie, from the time I picked up poetry again (after a long hiatus of nineteen years), I considered myself a poet, whether I was writing at the time or not. My full-time job as a professor kept me very busy, but I would jot down ideas when they came to me, and then I would work on them when I had the time. My mental identification as a poet had nothing to do with whether the poems were getting published (for years, they were not), but just with my passion for poetry and my joy in writing it. If you asked me what I did, I would probably say that I taught, because most people who ask that question want to know how you earn a living. I added "translator" to my mental categories once I started doing that again. Neither the poetry nor the translation has ever paid me a living wage, yet they are both very much what I define myself through.

Susan

[James Brancheau]

I missed a whole swathe of comments. I dunno how that happened. I saw Julie's comment, which I responded to, and Roger's I'm agnostic comment (which was a good way to put it). Nothing between. Hmm. I'm with John on this one. Dylan. His now famous son was involved with the truth about Weinstein. And, to my knowledge, wants nothing to do with his father. Just saying.

Added: Manhattan might be off-putting because of what we know about his behavior now. But I think it's his best movie. I don't get angry, I grow a tumor. (Or however he said that.) And the "character" realizes something in the end.

[Michael Cantor]

Originally Posted by Julie Steiner

Does it matter? Probably not. It's just a thought exercise.

I believe that sums it up perfectly. And it only took us 81 posts to get there.

[James Brancheau]

C'mon Michael, engage.

[Michael Cantor]

Engage? I'm having enough trouble now finishing a decent poem - my desk and mind are littered with so-so half-poems - to spend time writing about writing about writing.

[James Brancheau]

It doesn't always have to be a terzanelle, Michael. Just giving you shit. Good to see you around.

[Roger Slater]

"Personally, I think that those of us like myself who produce poetry in fitful little blips of activity, with long, long dry spells between them, are poets when we are engaging with the world in a poetic way (whether or not anything actually gets written then), but are not poets anymore when we aren't."

What other title can you think of that only applies when you're doing the activity that the title implies? Are you only a teacher while teaching? Only a librarian when shelving books and shooshing noisy patrons? Only a doctor while seeing patients?

I know this isn't really important, but I think the reason I insist on allowing a freer use of the word "poet" is that I object to treating the word as a special word that exalts and compliments the person it is applied to. I think you can be a poet and never write a poem that is actually any good. If writing poetry is, as Susan put it, a way you define yourself, then I can't think of a reason to begrudge a person that title.

Also, do we really need such a restrictive definition of "poet"? Why? So we can shame and criticize those who adopt it without meeting our standards? So we can deny the title to those whose success bothers us? So we can beat ourselves up during a dry period by saying that we're not even poets? When we get too finicky about whom to call a poet, we are perhaps taking ourselves too seriously.

You don't need to be good at it or do it all the time to be a "poet."

[Julie Steiner]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

What other title can you think of that only applies when you're doing the activity that the title implies? Are you only a teacher while teaching? Only a librarian when shelving books and shooshing noisy patrons? Only a doctor while seeing patients?

When people retire from a profession, they are no longer teachers or plumbers or whatever, but retired teachers or plumbers or whatever.

I don't see why poetry should be any different.

Those poets who consider their dry spells to be vacations or sabbaticals—after which they expect to return to poetry-related activity—don't stop being poets during these interruptions. In contrast, those poets who, like me, expect each dry spell to become permanent and the muse never to return again, are not poets anymore while not habitually working on or thinking about poetry.

I just come out of retirement a lot.

[Mark McDonnell]

Of course, I may be wrong about Woody Allen. Of course. But I always had a feeling. Well, from reading a fair bit, it's more than just a feeling but I don't want to labour the point. Obviously it's an uncomfortable position to defend and I hope no extrapolation is made from it that I don't think accusations of child abuse should always be taken absolutely seriously.

Like Julie, I often don't feel like a poet but I like telling myself that I am one. Sometimes I'm a poet for 10 brilliant seconds a day. I've never introduced myself as one though, ha.