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Well, I still write poetry, but I wouldn't call myself a poet.

I always thought that poetry is the verdict that others give to a certain kind of writing. So to call yourself a poet is a kind of dangerous description. It's for others; it's for others to use.

I am not quite a poet but I am something of the kind.

Poetry is a release of something previously unknown into the visible. You write to invite that, to make of yourself a gathering of the unexpected and, with luck, of the unexpectable.

We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words.

I don't try to call myself a poet. But I know that my stuff is pretty literal, in that the themes are pretty simple and on the surface.

Whereas with poetry no one has to show anybody really, and you don't have to tell anyone you're doing it.

To be a poet is a condition rather than a profession.

If you cannot be a poet, be the poem.

As far as I am concerned, poetry is a statement concerning the human condition, composed in verse.