Well, this is an exciting Poetry Friday, because I’m sharing my first-ever published poem! Yes, yours truly is officially a published poet.
I sold this poem to Highlights quite literally years ago, and it finally appeared in print in September 2024 – the wheels of the publishing industry turn slowly, my friends.
I’ve always struggled to think of myself as a poet. Being a writer feels natural, and easy to define – I write, therefor I am a writer. I have no problems identifying as an author, either – my writing has been published, ergo I am an author.
But poet – now that feels different. Less a job title than a vocation, a state of mind or being. Poets are profound thinkers who produce works of deep significance. Poets tackle big issues, complex subjects, unusual forms and structures. Poets are serious.
None of that feels like it really applies to me.
I write silly little rhyming poems, using the most basic of all poetic forms. I’m not serious. I don’t suffer for my art, feel a burning passion in my soul, tackle the deepest of mankind’s challenges, etcetera etcetera etcetera.
To further my point, I typed “poet” into a royalty-free image website, and this is what popped up:
Look at these serious, suffering men, thinking their profound thoughts and penning their deep words. I don’t look like that. Can I be a poet, when I more often look like this?
Still, I’ve sold a poem. I’ve sold three poems, truth be told, and one at least has appeared in print. Does that make me a poet? Or a writer who also writes poetry? I don’t know. Maybe it’s like owning a new pair of boots – sometimes it takes a while to fully break them in.
Does anyone else struggle with what it means to be a poet? Am I the only one experiencing an existential crisis? Does the fact that I’m experiencing said crisis mean that I actually am a real poet? Let me know! 
Check out all the amazing Poetry Friday posts by visiting this week’s host: Book Seed Studio.
Jane, congratulations! How fun to see your poem in print. That is interesting that it has literally taken years. Wow. Seems weirdly inefficient, but I’m glad it made it into the magazine. A stellar one to be sure. That is so funny that those photos came up of poets, and your photo of what you more often look like is great. I think it was in 2020, when I joined a group of teachers who wrote poetry together that I began to think of myself as a poet, a teacher-poet, actually. You are definitely a poet, crisis or not. (Jane, I wonder if you put your link at Jan’s site last Friday? I couldn’t find it there.)
I did try to put my link up at Jan’s page, but my comment has never appeared! Maybe it’ll show up eventually.
Congrats, Jane! Yes, it absolutely makes you a poet, but you were a poet even before publication.
