How did you know you are a poet?

[Kingsway]

How did you realise that you can write poems?

[Annamikov]

I don't know. One day I just sat down and wrote about my feelings. I never thought that I was capable of writing a poem, I just stuck to writing stories. But I guess it's possible.

[Seekeroflight]

When I started speaking from my heart.

[Abigail09]

It was my experience. I discovered when I was young how I loved putting words together, it just flowed. I would write a poem about situations too. Just Passion.

[briellejee]

when I entered a contest and won? I guess? Then I keep on entering contests when I was young until college and still won. I think that made me realize i am a poet.

[Lincolnshirelass]

I suppose that even before I could write I was aware of the pleasure and excitement of the rhythms and nuances of words. My Mum also read poetry aloud to me a great deal - though despite her love for Incy Wincy Spider I still have arachnophobia!

[chrystalheart]

Words sometimes just swirl through my head lyrically and I feel a great pressure to explore it more. When I do explore it, that is the work of poetry. Not just capturing the lyrics that came unbidden, but building on them into a whole work.

[GabbiV]

Not to be deadpan, but when I started writing poetry almost every day. I think you become what you do on the daily unless you purposefully separate yourself from the daily grind.

[palilogy]

When I was in high school writing poetry and creating portfolios as my final projects for English class.

[bookishsoul]

I think you’re a poet when you feel that you look at the world differently than others. When some things are just so beautiful, moving, or devastating that the only way to make sense of them is to put them down on a page, that is when you are a poet. I think life in general is different for poets. It’s more intense, like it’s screamimg at you to make some sort of sense of it.

[KatSims92]

I realized that when I was writing things from the heart about the beauty of nature, love, wonder, etc. and I sent them in to a greeting card company and 10 of them were accepted on my first try! I never thought I would ever be able to write poetry, and I didn't even consider it poetry, but apparently they did.

[rupe10]

High-school, 10th grade.

There was a mandatory poetry module in English class.

Some of my friends were freaking out 'cause they just couldn't get their heads around it.

I cranked about a bunch of random poems, in exchange for future favors) for them to choose from.

All my boys got at least 90% -- and three of them(with three different teachers) started getting harassed to join the poetry club and do contest submissions.

Was all shits & giggles until the principal started calling their folks --on behalf of the teachers.

Yep...That's when I had a notion.

[ChiChi_7]

Between the ages of 8yrs and 12yrs old, I found myself becoming more and more interested in Poetry and books in general. Soon I started attempting to write my own and it just sort of took off from there. Writing has always made me happier and in my writing I mostly do best in poetry. Poetry flows much more for me and it just fits me.

[Sweetp120]

I feel that anyone can be a poet if they put their mind to it. Not all poems have to rhyme or follow distinctive rules. In fashion technically songs are poems whether they be country rap hip-hop rock soul. A poem can be deep with metaphors or straight and simple. they can be dark or light or even in between. and its definitely not jus about love. the topic can be anything the author chooses. It is the authors discretion, that is after all what creative writing is about. The point of a poem depends on the authors meaning and not all poems have to be understood by everyone. I remember one year writing poetry for my Christian youth group who every year has events held at state and then regional and finally national levels. The poem I used that year my grandmother hated with a passion, she could not relate to it, she did not find what I saw in my work, but someone else had. A few of the judges saw so much potential in it that I could have went to regionals in New York that year, I chose not to that year. Sometimes a part of me wishes I had. I sometimes wish I would have found out if it could have gone national, but sometimes the best poetry is the humble kind. ones that others stumble upon and help flourish instead of the lavishly exploited debuts that are often forgotten a year or two later.
For some it is more natural like myself. for me I always had a way with words, so much so that one year when I had a mentor who was a published author himself he told me that he wanted me to write a poem with a title he gave me. it was a challenge something I had never done before so of course I accepted his assignment. the title he gave me was Sugar Buzz Blues You see as a type 1 juvenile diabetic he wanted to see and feel what I felt because he was not. I wrote a two versed poem that I sent into a local towns poetry contest, they loved it so much that it was one among many published in their winners book. The library there I am sure still has a copy of it to this day.
one thing I wish to share as it is on my mind, is one thing that I remember my dear mentor told me that year- no matter what you write or how you write it a poem is not a poem until its final copy is read aloud.

[Jsovermyer]

When you can put down on paper what you are feeling, then you are a poet. You might not be published. Others might not appreciate your work. You might not even share your poems. But still you are a poet.