What Does It Mean to be a Poet?

By Katerina Canyon

Recently, I was saddened by the death of the poet Khet Thi. His poetry spoke out against the military junta in Myanmar, and he died for it. My guess is Khet Thi was very afraid when he learned his life was at risk. He could have taken back his words and possibly had a chance to live, but he felt that his words were more important than his life.

Being a poet means serving as the heartbeat and conscience of the world. It means sometimes saying things that the rest of the world is afraid to say or hear. Often these are things the poet is afraid to say, but the poet does it anyway. 

If what you write down does not scare you, you haven’t gone far enough. That fear is what makes you a poet. Crimean Tatar poet Bekir Vaap oğlu Çoban-zade wrote poems that were beautiful portrayals of the Crimean countryside. He also wrote of abuses his people suffered under Russian rule. As a result, he was arrested by Soviet authorities for subversive activities and executed. Çoban-zade likely knew that this would be his fate, but he continued to hone his craft, and he continued to teach others to do the same.

Being a poet does not necessarily mean dying for your words. I don’t think most poets think about whether or not our words will cause us to die. We are provoked to write and get the words out more than by what doing that means for us. Khet Thi actually said, “It was not my intention to become a martyr.” 

Sometimes standing up for the truth means dying for that truth. Those with guns often fear those with pens and will do whatever it takes to kill that truth. Often that means killing the poet.

Being a poet is an art. It means sculpting your words such that they reach into the deepest part of human emotion. There are many ways poets sculpt their words. It could be by verse, by metaphor, by rhyme, or by alliteration. What’s most important is that however a poet chooses to create their poem, they do it in such a way that it elicits emotion or imagery for the reader or listener. It is this provocation of emotion that triggers action. Audre Lorde was an excellent sculptor of words. She wrote of race, gender, and sexuality. Her words empower Blacks and women to act in ways that benefit themselves and society. Her poem “Now” is a simple example of strength:

Woman power

is

Black Power

is

Human Power…

Lorde’s simple words make me proud of my human capabilities. They empower me to head out into the world and encourage change. Her words make me want to be a poet.

There is a difference between being a poet and being a person who writes poems. Anyone can write a poem. Being a poet means dedicating your life to the written word. It means dedicating your life to observing and relaying the truth. A lot of people write poems because they want to write poems. Poets write because they are compelled to write poems.

I often dream poems. I wake up in the morning with the intense desire to either read or write poems. When COVID hit the U.S. a year ago, and we were all told to stay home, my first thought was to start a Zoom poetry group to make sure people had a place to go to share poetry.

I’m often asked how I became a poet. Many poets will often tell you that deciding you are a poet was not an easy decision to make. Similarly, the road to this determination was not easy for me. I wrote poems nearly my whole life, but I never really considered myself a poet until I was close to 30 years old. 

It started because I was not happy in the job I had at the time, and I read a book that told me to look at who I really am, and what I really love. It said to think about what brought me joy as a child. It was at that point that I said to myself, “I’m a poet.” My husband was hoping that I would have had a more practical realization. It caused a tremendous amount of stress in our relationship. Then one day, we were watching t.v., and a character started reciting a Shakespeare sonnet, and I recited it along with the character, and my husband asked how I knew the sonnet. I replied, “I don’t know. I just know it.” He said, “Wow. You are a poet, aren’t you?”

When I’m happy, I write poems. When I am sad, I write poems. When I’m angry, I write poems. It’s a compulsion. 

As a Black poet, I find myself focused on Black issues. A lot of my poems are about police brutality and those lost to police brutality. I hate writing these poems. I am tired of writing poems about dead Black men, but I do it because I have to write about it. It is a flare in me that has to be released.

I should close by saying there is more than one way to be a poet. You don’t have to throw yourself on a pyre to consider yourself a poet, but it has to definitely be something you want to do, because reaching into your innermost thoughts and laying them out for the world to accept or reject is one of the hardest jobs in the world.

—

SURVIVING HOME

Katerina Canyon will be releasing her new poetry book ‘Surviving Home’ in December 2021, published by Kelsay Books. Surviving Home is a reflection on African American heritage and up-bringing, racism, and abuse. 

Concisely arresting and challenging the beliefs of family and the fantasies of tradition, the poems in Surviving Home show that home is a place that you endure rather than a place where you are nurtured. With unyielding cadence and unparalleled sadness and warmth, Katerina Canyon contemplates the prejudice and limitations buried in a person’s African American heritage: parents that seem to care for you with one hand and slap you with the other, the secret desires to be released from the daily burdens of life, as well as the surprising ways a child chooses to amuse herself. Finding resilience in the unexpected, this collection tears down the delicate facades of family.

Surviving Home is available for pre-sale: https://www.poetickat.com/product-page/surviving-home

About the Author:

Katerina Canyon is an Award Winning Poet, Best Selling Author, civil rights activist, and essayist. She grew up in Los Angeles and much of her writing reflects that experience.

Her first book of poetry, Changing the Lines, was released in August 2017. This work is a conversation between mother and daughter as they examine what it means to operate within the world as black women.

Katerina Canyon is a 2020 and 2019 Pushcart Prize Nominee. Her stories have been published in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Folks. Her poetry has been published in CatheXis Northwest, The Esthetic Apostle, Into the Void, Black Napkin, and Waxing & Waning.  From 2000 to 2003, she served as the Poet Laureate of Sunland-Tujunga. During that time, she started a poetry festival and ran several poetry readings. She has a B.A. in English, International Studies and Creative Writing from Saint Louis University and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. She currently lives in Seattle.

Her latest book, Surviving Home, will be released in December 2021, published by Kelsay Books. To learn more or to read an excerpt from the book, go to https://bookpublicityservices.com/surviving-home-katerina-canyon/

Readers can connect with Katerina on Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook. To learn more, go to https://www.poetickat.com/  

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing