poll dance: who knows if we’re poets?

by Deb Scott

Carolee is taking a little time off to be with her family this week, so I am stepping in to give you a place to talk about the current poll, should you want to.

We had a lot of voting in response to this week’s question: “Who in your ‘real life’ knows that you’re a poet?”

As of this writing, there are 51 voters:

• 78% of you say your closest friends know you are poets.
• 69% say your spouses and partners do while only.
• 65% claim your immediate family knows you are a poet.
• 47% say your entire family knows while.
• 41% of your co-workers do.
• 10% say probably no one knows you’re a poet. (We didn’t add your online poetry friends as a category, so you can’t claim no one, exactly.)

Since I have the floor, I guess I get to tell you a little something, and then open it up for discussion.

I felt pretty awkward claiming the poet-title until fairly recently. Not that it’s printed on my business card now, but I do feel a little more comfortable admitting I’m a poet these days. And not only with admitting that I write poetry, but that I am a poet. I actually introduced myself as a poet to someone several weeks ago. It came out, unbidden, without thinking, when a friend introduced me to an acquaintance she ran into at an event we were both at. There is context to the circumstance: My friend is a writer, a “real” writer, and we were at a reading (Colson Whitehead). Regardless, I said, “I’m a poet.”

And it felt great. Kind of like the affirmation of solidarity people feel when saying “My name is ‘Whoever,”‘and I’m an alcoholic.” (I respect that group; I am not making fun of it.) Or when people claim the home state of their birth, or the school they went to. There is solidarity, identification. Camaraderie. And it’s kind of fun.

And I have you all to thank for that moment. Because so often your kind words about my poetry (knowing we’re not a critique group, but an encouraging outlet to let the poetry out of us) helped me to realize, “Hey, I really am a poet.”

So now it’s your turn. Whether you are highly vocal and sure-footed about your place in the world as a poet, or whether you are quietly creating yourself as a poet along with your poetry, tell us about it. Do you wish more people knew? Do you want to keep your art to yourself? Is there some magical mantle that some grand-poet must bless you with before you can call yourself a poet? (I hope not, or I will have been made a liar!)

So tell us all what you think. Or even chime in if only to say “I am a poet!” (But only if you want to.)

P.S.: By the time the poll closed, we had a few more responses:

• 72% of you say your closest friends know you are poets
• 62% say your spouses and partners do while only
• 57% claim your immediate family knows you are a poet
• 41% Say your entire family knows while
• 38% of your co-workers do
• 12% Say probably no one knows you’re a poet

Here’s how the poll dance works: We post a poll and let it ride for a week and a half, and then Carolee will usually talk a little bit about the topic and the results. The poll will stand for a few days after that to allow additional participation. The rotation gives each poll two weeks in the white-hot spotlight.