Considering the ways in which so many of us waste our time, what would be wrong with a world in which everybody were writing poems? After all, there’s a significant service to humanity in spending time doing no harm. While you’re writing your poem, there’s one less scoundrel in the world. And I’d like a world, wouldn’t you, in which people actually took time to think about what they were saying? It would be, I’m certain, a more peaceful, more reasonable place. I don’t think there could ever be too many poets. By writing poetry, even those poems that fail and fail miserably, we honor and affirm life. We say “We loved the earth but could not stay.”

–Ted Kooser, The Poetry Home Repair Manual

And I have Alison to thank for sharing this gift. I shall also keep her words handy:

And what comfort in the idea that there can never be too many poets (or writers or artists). We don’t have to earn a spot at the crowded table, because there’s room for all.