What it takes to be a Poet

Teagan Matthias
March 6th, 2013
Period 1
Creative Writing: Spare
What it takes to be a Poet  


Poetry. The word itself is a broad term, and when most people think about it, they think of some old guy who died two-hundred years ago and the life of whom is not important to life today, and does not pertain to you. I know I sure did. Truth be told, I walked into Creative Writing class on the first day of second semester, and when my teacher told me that I was going to be writing poetry, I groaned internally. Why you may ask? Because poetry had always been presented to me in a way that wasn’t exciting. Wasn’t important, or pertinent to my everyday lifestyle. And if you think that way, then prepare to be proven wrong.

In the documentary "I Am", Tom Shadyac discovers the world around him, most likely for the first time as he has been so sheltered as a child and even as an adult, living a kushy life as a director. Living in big castle-like homes and bathing in bathtubs that were twice the size of my bedroom, while watching television on his seventy-two inch plasma is most likely all he's known for his entire life. The movie presents Shadyac interviewing historians, scientists, and many other important people, asking them crucial questions about life in general, and what it takes to be happy (spoiler alert: the answer is not being super-rich). So when the question is posed: "Is Tom Shadyac a poet?", the fast and simple answer is "No. He doesn't write poetry. Duh." But then you have to dig deeper. Do you have to write poetry to necessarily be a poet?

One of the easiest things to do, would be to automatically say yes to that question. This is because that's all we've been taught our entire lives, is that everything is black and white and there is no deeper meaning to anything. And isn't that what society wants us to believe? But then on the opposite side you have all these conspiracy theorists who believe that nothing is what it seems and everything you've experienced and will continue to experience is a lie. Plain and simple. Don't like it? I'm sorry. That's how life is. And like Taylor Mali's poem "How falling in love is like owning a dog" and "The art of disappearing" by Naomi Shihab Nye similarly, Shadyac proves to us that almost nothing we see in life is genuine. Even those we believe love us so dearly, like a boyfriend, or girlfriend or significant other or whatever can as easily turn around and bite us as easily as they can be our best friend or loved ones. Of course, some may argue that family is forever, and that may be true, but it's not always like that, and that's one of the many lies that society loves oh-so-much to spoon feed you as a child.

So realizing that, and how similar Shadyac and the above poets who do write poetry are, it's easy to tell, for me, personally, that Shadyac is a poet. My reasoning? Don't poets like to convey us valuable messages about life in a creative way? That's what we've always been taught, correct? And isn't that exactly what Tom Shadyac is doing in his movie? Arguably, yes. That's exactly what he's doing when he takes us to different people, scientists telling us that we are affected by the universe and vice versa, and that our heart is so much more effective than our brains. So doesn't that teach us overall a lesson? And isn't that lesson that people are not affectionate, but animals are and that basically we should be more like animals in general? Not only that, but that compassion is the only thing that will really truly satisfy us, and not greed and money.

In my mind, Shadyac definitely qualifies as a poet, whether he writes poetry or not.