Poetry Is Doomed #38: Why You Should Stop Calling Yourself a Professional Poet

[scottwoods]

(Note: This column usually appears on Got Poetry.com, but there appears to be some technical difficulties lately. You can see previous columns (except last month's) here: http://gotpoetry.com/News/topic=24.html
Onward! - S.)

Poetry is Doomed #38:
Why You Should Stop Calling Yourself a Professional Poet

“professional”
adj.
1. Of, pertaining to, typical of

Comments

[davisac1]

Just as an interesting point of comparison, a "professional engineer" is a specific thing -- you have to take a tiered set of tests to get a P.E. license, and that changes your legal status (qualifies you to testify in court, for example) and lets you put the P.E. behind your name. So even if you're making your living as an engineer and have been for thirty years, you can't just call yourself a professional engineer.

Love the rant. :D

[scottwoods]

Huh!

[brazencaucasian]

I CANNOT F'ing STAND the poets who feel entitled to be given a show or for you to buy their product because they are "professional poets". If you're so professional, my money won't make or break you.

[wonderdave]

I was just thinking about this in regards to myself. My grandfather refers to me as an actor (something I have in the past met the monetary standards you listed to qualify as professional) and I never correct him cause it's a true enough statement and he clearly likes saying it. He knows I work as a delivery person. I think it's just something he takes pride in since he paid for me to take acting classes when I was a kid.

When People Ask what I do I often run off the list of whatever I happen to be employed doing at that time: writer, performer, waiter, delivery person, singing telegram, coffee roaster etc... All of those things are sources of income and they are all things I do/have done. I think If I just said poet I'd be admitting some sort of embarrassment at being a waiter or a coffee roaster. I also feel like I'd be delusional to just say one thing. But I do include writer and when pressed explain that I in fact do make some money from writing. At any rate I enjoy your articles.

[toangelblue]

Well put.