Poetry Lifestyle

It is my firm conviction that being a poet is more that writing poetry. All sorts of people write poems at various periods of their life. The act of writing, finding the best words and determining how they best fit together is but a small part of being a poet.

To reach the point of being a poet seems to me to be beyond just writing poetry. I believe it even transcends publication. It is more than having a book of poems published. What to me makes a poet is when he or she takes on poetry as a lifestyle.

To best illustrate what I mean by this, I'm talking about a paradigm shift in one's everyday life. It is about viewing things around you with a greater awareness of their underlying attributes.
In Sylvia Plath's journals we see how the young poet looked at life around her for material to write about. This was a constant process with her. It is not my position that one must find a story in everything, but by maintaining this posture, one developes the sensitivities that allow for a greater depth of awareness of the world around them. Such an action fosters a positive growth that I believe is beneficial beyond the realm of the poetry we put on a page. Though I admit, it can't hurt what we write either.