“A poet is someone who notices and is enormously taken by things that somebody else would walk by. ” ——James Dickey
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“A poet is someone who notices and is enormously taken by things that somebody else would walk by. ” ——James Dickey
Poemtstry 
I’d say that is particularly true of poets, though I think there’s an element of that in anyone who writes … writers tend to be more observant. I think it is that element that distinguishes a “writer” from “someone who writes” … if that makes sense?
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Oh yes–makes sense. I have been known to get into arguments about this very distinction, across many vocations/disciplines. Someone once referred to a friend who teaches grade-school math as a “mathematician,” which I rather strongly took issue with. It is not that being a grade-school teacher would or should in any way disqualify one from being a mathematician, nor that I meant it in any derogatory or pejorative sense, only that this person didn’t “do mathematics,” the real work of mathematics. It is simply that fact I feel very strongly that it takes more than aptitude and a degree (even a large one) to “be” something. I think this includes the title “artist” or “poet” or “writer.” (Perhaps it is time that I share a certain quote by Yehuda Amichai.)
It is the doing of the thing that matters. It is our actions (in the present) that define us, if defined we can be.
And then again, perhaps I just feel this way because I’m a three-time college drop-out with an inferiority complex. 😉
This quote also put me in mind of the difference between “seeing” and “looking.” One being passive, the other active. The word that leaps out at me is, obviously, “taken.” As in, despite any other intentions, we are driven to stop and look. We are pulled in by the world around us. Which is also strangely a passive process I suppose, but one that we are acutely aware of. We notice things.
Thanks for you time, John. It is much appreciated.
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I love this quote. I hesitate to call myself a poet, but I often attach huge significance to things which seem to barely graze the surface of other people’s consciousness! I am always looking for connections: in people, nature, words…naturally melancholic, connection is what gives me my dopamine hit, makes it all seem worthwhile…
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And this is precisely why you ARE a poet. Because you are driven by the small things that speak of so much. Thank you for visiting and commenting.
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