Definition of a Poet (Jack Kerouac)

DEFINITION OF A POET (1941)

A poet is a fellow who
spends his time thinking
about what it is that's
wrong, and although he
knows he can never quite
find out what this wrong
is, he goes right on
thinking it out and writing
it down.
A poet is a blind optimist.
The world is against him for
many reasons. But the
poet persists. He believes
that he is on the right track,
no matter what any of his
fellow men say. In his
eternal search for truth, the
poet is alone.
He tries to be timeless in a
society built on time.

- Jack Keroauc (1922 - 1969.
Full name: Jean Louis Lebris de Kerouac.)

From: Atop an Underwood. Early Stories and Other Writings (1936-1943), page 122, Viking, 1999, edited, introduced and with commentary by Paul Marion.

Here's an excerpt from Paul Marion's introductory comments to the above poem, taken from page 121 of Atop an Underwood:

"To Kerouac, the poet was the ideal, the highest form of a writer, the artist-writer, of whom he wrote:

"Their use lies in being able to erect structures of thought for mankind."

He described Whitmaman as his "first real influence" and the reason he decided to hit the American road.

Young Kerouac experimented with poetry in all forms, but traditional verse forms did not suit him. In 1940 he explained why:

"I feel that the words are put backwards. I'd rather have simple prose-poetry, to the point, concise, and more digestible. Outside of that, poetry is sublime. Poets are happy people,because they too are sublime."

He later added a few original forms to the array of poetic forms, including the "pop", a three-line American or Western haiku without syllable restrictions, and the "blues", which he defined as "a complete poem filling in one notebook page, of small or medium size, usually in 15-to-25 lines, known as a Chorus, i.e., 223rd Chorus of Mexico City Blues in the Book of Blues."

Further stuff, by and about Kerouac, under:
audio files - Jack Keroauc recites, etc..
Dharma Beat.
Kerouac Alley.
Jack Kerouac - Wikipedia biography.

German links:
Kerouac - Encarta Biographie,
Kerouac - Wikipedia Biographie,
Kerouac - Lonesome Traveller Biographie.