should we start with the notion that there are no careers? in our writing/reading/living. so then what is the job of a poet contrasted with the work of a poet.
1) job: something to be done, often endured, to earn our daily bread.
2) work: processes of reading/writing without prospects of financial gain, that it be mostly obsession, about the work.
that the work if we are lucky becomes a life. living is not a job. sweeping floors, programming computers, teaching, factory work, etc. are what we do to support our lives. and these sources of funding re: jobs are not obsessions, are not careers. jobs only allow us marginal freedoms to engage in the work of poetry for they allow us to pay bills, eat, buy books etc. the limits of jobs are the limits placed on our time. limited time can also be an obsession for poetry. but worry over time is not a career even if it may cost a few grey hairs.
neither would we define our obsessions as careers. so when we talk about poetry we are engaged in the struggles of living each in our unique fashions.
there are no careers, in poetry and in life. we all must do some type of job for us to live. the garrett is overrated. obsessions do not equal starvation.
let us talk about how poetry transforms the life rather than how life transforms poetry. how our reading/writing changes how we sweep floors .
