why are people so quick to call themselves poets?

[johnyamrus]

i find it interesting to think about why so many people want to label themselves as "poets". i've been publishing for 36 years now and still don't feel i've earned the title. maybe it's because being a "poet" somehow sets one apart...special in some way. i don't know. i've never felt as one separate from the crowd. or special. i've never felt myself to be a "poet". i write poetry, sure....but guys like poe and whitman and bukowski...they're poets. and i don't even think poe would consider himself to be a poet...he was just a writer who occasionally wrote poetry. poets...real poets...are few and far between. but, go out in your back yard and lift up any large rock and you'll find 5 or six people all claiming to be poets...or artists. no, what we are...what i am, at least...is some schmoe who takes out the garbage every day...who shovels the snow...who eats and drinks and laughs (and, yes) occasionally writes a fair to middling poem. but a poet? nah. i'm not so special. wouldn't claim to be. wouldn't want to be.
john

[aquarianstar]

Whether or not you call yourself a poet depends on what your definition of what a poet is.
For some, a poet is someone who writes poetry, like a writer is simply someone who writes.
For others, a few rhyming lines does not a poet make!

personally, I don't consider myself a poet. I am a person who is intrigued and delighted by what a poem is and what it does. I'm only trying, at the end of the day. A piece that I write is only slapdash when I look at the likes of Eliot and Kavanagh, what they have created.

Maybe, if I try hard enough and long enough, I'll write a real poem someday...

I don't think we can call ourselves poets, it's someone else's job.

[rrw]

Well being a poet is just something you do. If you write words on a page... you're a poet... good, bad, or mediocre... it doesn't matter... the proof of an artist is in everything you do.... to be alive is to be an artist... expressing life through words makes you a poet... Whether you are a GREAT poet is for others to decide... not you. And for my money, both of you guys are great.

[tcn]

I usually say, I write! And I add that it is a hobby and something I do for fun and sanity because when I write I can be anyone I want to be, say anything I want to say, do anything I want to do, go anywhere I want to go, all the while giving a voice to those who would not ordinarily have one. If anyone wants to define me further, they can. I'd be interested in what they have to say. But as for me defining myself as this, that or the other thing;I'm too complex to simplify it!

[butt3rfly]

I might say I write poetry (or try), but I think I would refer to myself as a "writer" before I would a "poet". To call oneself a Poe tseems a little egotistical and presumptuous to me I guess. It seems it is something you earn and that others call you, not what you call yourself.