Is Everyone a Poet?

William Stafford was once asked in an interview, “When did you decide to become a poet?” He responded that the question was put wrongly: “Everyone is born a poet – a person discovering the way words sound and work, caring and delighting in words. I just kept on doing what everyone starts out doing. The real question is why did other people stop?”

“We all need to discover and keep rediscovering the poetry of our own existence.”
~Tim Hansel

When I Met My Muse
I glanced at her and took my glasses
off—they were still singing. They buzzed
like a locust on the coffee table and then
ceased. Her voice belled forth, and the
sunlight bent. I felt the ceiling arch, and
knew that nails up there took a new grip
on whatever they touched. "I am your own
way of looking at things," she said. "When
you allow me to live with you, every
glance at the world around you will be
a sort of salvation." And I took her hand.
~William Stafford