Counting Poets

Rapidly aging set-up, how many
To screw in a light bulb, this or that
Blondes, lawyers, Jewish mothers
Architects, whatever, yet
If one talks about poets
(They and them or you and I)
It becomes harder to quantify

In the beginning there were
The darkness and the light
By each other defined
Instantly forming a vortex
(Reminiscent of sex)
Imitated universally
By relationships in, um, “reality”

Everything by its opposite
Put into perspective
From a given angle
(Yours, mine, theirs, his, hers)
Each in the other entangled
Like a paragraph with blank verse
Be either of them smooth or mangled

But in addition to black and white
Created incidentally or intentionally
By separation of darkness from light
Colors in an infinite array
(Including infinite shades of gray)
And who decides between
What is azure and what’s aquamarine?

Therefore in determining
How many poets may exist
With our very reality we are toying
Where differences perceptual
Contextual and conceptual
By juxtaposition with each other persist
(Sorry if I am losing you here)

The Devil is in the definition
(In the hearer’s ear or reader’s eye)
Where one perceives a poetic rendition
Another apprehends language plain as pie
Where one enjoys the fragrance of masterpiece
Another catches a whiff of doggerel unworthy
To carry the hallowed name of Poetry

Not so simple this matter of deciding
To whom goes the honored title of poet
To which goes the reviled moniker of hack
To whom goes the coveted laureate
And whose submissions always bounce back
The criteria are largely subjective
(Who gets praise and who invective)

Not to hone too sharp a point
(Don’t want to poke anyone per se)
But if deciding who’s a poet and who ain’t
Is up to whomever you’ve asked to say
To count the poets there is just no way
Unless just to hazard a random guess
Or simply ask and count those who say, “Yes.”

This Hub was written in reply to the question by fellow Hubber, Astra Nomik: “How many poets are there on HubPages?” Well, there are tens of thousands of members on HP, several thousand of whom are writers and of these writers, many, many of them at least dabble in poetry. Does that make them poets? I think so. Others may differ with my opinion, however.

Poets and Writers magazine does not let one register to be in their database of poets unless the person has had poems published in publications by recognized publishers. Since I am ineligible for this honor, does this mean I am not a poet? Does it mean that Poets and Writers magazine does not think I am a poet?

I think I am a poet and HubPages agrees with me, apparently, since they awarded me Grand Prize for Poetry recently in the “HubPatron of the Arts” creative writing contest. But that does not mean that you have to think I am a poet. You can think I am a mauve elephant in a spandex leotard if you want, but that will probably not make me one. Neither will thinking I am a poet make me one.

But I think I am a poet because:

• I regularly write poetry
• Some people besides me call me a poet