99% of poets are sycophants who see poetry not as a way of life, but as a hobby or a trade. They have no passion for the craft or for an existence founded on beauty and honesty and adventure. They have neither loyalty nor honor nor courage.
1% of poets adhere to a sense of justice and truth like masked vigilantes from comic books, leading an ostensibly normal life while chasing something more elusive and noble through words and experiences. They believe in the intensity and importance of a raindrop and the way people walk in pairs down sidewalks. They struggle with the power and inadequacy of words. They adore the smell of ink and the movements lips make when they whisper. They don't write because they want to. They don't need deadlines or assignments. They write because it's who they are.
I don't hate the 99 percenters. I've had many friends who are 99ers. Sometimes I even wish I were one of them, but it's always been clear that I'm not.
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