A poet is like a honeybee

From an interview with Connie Deanovich, recipient of a Whiting Writer's Award and a GE Award for Younger Writers (at Here Comes Everybody, via Helbardot):

7. How would you explain what a poem is to my seven year old?
I would say words have secrets and special powers. I would smile and wait for the child to smile back or to smirk. Then I’d say it is a poet’s job to discover these secrets and powers. I’d say a poet is like a honeybee except instead of going from flower to flower the poet goes from word to word to get what she needs. The bee makes honey and the poet makes poems. Both are workers, explorers, and participants in the world of beauty. A poet puts words together so the secrets and powers can be revealed to anyone who reads the poems.

[Updated 7/21]
Or, a poet is like a collector of marbles (according to Elissa Malcolm):

Words are my present-day marbles. I collect them, arrange and rearrange them, accumulate journal notebooks and three-ring binders, paper and printer cartridges. My computer becomes my pail. My life becomes a renewable cycle of collecting, arranging and rearranging, and giving away. Plunging my hands into cool, smooth concepts, or those more abrasive to the touch. Feeling them out, letting them run through mental fingers. Getting them down on the page. Collecting the pages and starting the cycle anew.

Comments

[the sylph]

leslee,
I think about this so often. This is very well stated, thank-you for collecting it.

[leslee]

Aren't these great quotes? I need to be better at collecting words. Can't leave it to my own little brain - it's a sieve.