you call yourself a poet
which means you arrange words
into patterns for fun or
profit as do the professional
crossword puzzlers among us.  if you
call yourself a performance poet
it means that more people
than just you and your mom
like the sound of your voice when
you describe the patterns you have been arranging
for fun or profit which makes you much the same
as a crossword puzzler who goes on the radio
to speak of crosswords.  if you call yourself
a page poet you do crossword puzzles
in the privacy of your own home.  if you call
yourself a political poet you look for clues
in crossword puzzles and tell everyone
what you’ve found.  if you call yourself
a love poet you get a tingle down under
whenever you figure out 16 across.  if you
call yourself a slam poet you get a tingle
down under at the prospect of arithmetic
which makes you a sudoku puzzler.  if you
don’t call yourself a poet at all and prefer to say
just that you write poems now and then you might be
a person who when bored or thoughtful
picks up a discarded puzzle on the train
and fills in the empty blanks left by the last puzzler
while staring out the window wondering
what’s a six letter word for fish eagle
when the second letter is S and the last is Y.
you don’t figure out it is OSPREY until you’ve left
the train and the puzzle behind and you spend
the rest of the day with a photorealistic image
of an osprey in your head all though every meeting
and dull lunch break.  
see that? 
now you are just another
person obsessed with a word and its meaning
and how it might carry you through tough times
and how it fits into a pattern
and while that sounds like it might make you
at last
a poet worthy of the claim
really you will still be a casual gamer
unless and until you become
the osprey
and forgo the debate in favor of
the hunt.