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I earn more than I thought I would when I became a poet.

How much money you get, depends on lots of extraneous things. It depends on how good you are at turning poetry into a marketable product, which is something it was never supposed to be. That's why many people suppose that the better the poet you are the lower your income should be, and that's probably true.

I never became a writer for the money. I am a poet first. Even getting published is a miracle for poets.

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

Poets are born, not paid.

To be a poet is a condition, not a profession.

If there's no money in poetry, neither is there poetry in money.

Poetry is a vocation. It is not a career but a calling.

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

It's a sad fact about our culture that a poet can earn much more money writing or talking about his art than he can by practicing it.