Theresa Haffner

So You Want To Be A Poet?

(for Suzanne Lummis)

So you want to be a poet?
Not, I guess, if all you want is to write something
sugary for your boyfriend
and say, "Oh, these are my innermost feelings, "
Certainly not if you want to make money,
because almost anything you could write that isn't poetry
would make more money
but
if you want to be taken seriously
it takes a lifetime of preparation and hard work
just to get something published
in some obscure literary magazine
that nobody ever heard of and nobody reads

So you want to be a poet?
Most people ...