Poetry Friday: How to Be a Poet

I'm wondering how many Poetry Friday posters and readers are going, like I am, to the International Reading Association conference in Chicago next week.  Is there some kind of secret signal I should know to help me recognize fellow bloggers? 

I did a poetry reading this week.  Several people had been invited to read, but I ended up being the only one who accepted.  There was hardly anyone there, but it was still fun to read my poems to an appreciative audience.  I hope I can do that again sometime. 

I was amazed to see how many poems I had to choose from; writing just a little at a time, I have amassed quite a large collection.  There's a real sense of satisfaction in making something that didn't exist before.

Here's Wendell Berry for today, with his poem "How to Be a Poet."  I am afraid I don't follow many of his instructions.  There's not much quiet in my life right now, with kids at home and screeching middle schoolers at work.  But he says this poem is a reminder for himself, so I guess it can be a reminder for me, too.

How To Be a Poet

by Wendell Berry

(to remind myself)

Make a place to sit down.   

Sit down. Be quiet.   

You must depend upon   

affection, reading, knowledge,   

skill—more of each   

than you have—inspiration,   

work, growing older, patience,   

for patience joins time   

to eternity. Any readers   

who like your poems,   

doubt their judgment.   

Here's the rest of it.

And here's today's Poetry Friday roundup.

And here's line twenty-seven of the Progressive Poem.

Happy Friday!