the rix mix

I know a few people who have done everything they believe they need to do to be considered poets. MFA, organizing readings, attending workshops.  publishing nicely-crafted pieces.  I am unable to think of them as poets. I suppose they are. But they lack something. They are too ordinary (I don't mean it in a bad sense regarding lifestyle); perhaps too caught up in current events - their view is essentially journalistic; some spiritual component missing, which doesn't imply a belief in a deity or deities. There's always something a little strange about poets (& often in a really good poem) throwing one off-balance, if briefly. You can't learn it or fake it.

Labels: about writing