Labels Categories and Such

When I think of poetry / a poem / a poet, there is a certain level of sophistication, evocation, and insight I imagine. Wallace Stevens, for instance.

So, when I write something that is sort of poetry, I have been reluctant in the extreme to call it a poem. Even more so, I am embarrassed beyond words to refer to myself as a "poet".

I need to discover the correct word. When I do write something from time to time, it is always as bad as the word"Doggerel" implies. "Verse" can sometimes, but not always, serve as the word for what I write, but "Versifier" is unbearable.

With the help of other colleagues, I have been pointed toward the poetry of Billy Collins (poet laureate so tough to argue); GK Chesterton (whose poems are lighthearted and have a certain bouncy rhythm); and now Tony Hoagland. And have been advised that what I write may be termed "narrative poems."

Somehow that nomenclature provides me with a certain stature. Don't you think? Perhaps not a Poet. But poet?

All in all, I think labels serve editors and publishers and some critics far better than they serve writers themselves. 

I am convinced that whichever of the 9 Muses is whispering over my shoulder -- or yours -- is not overly concerned with trends.