How to be a poet

You don't need a degree or a license to be a poet. If you're a beginner, you don't need to write poems with deep words and confusing metaphors. When in doubt, remember that every great poet has written terrible poems. The difference is that they kept writing.

You become a poet by writing poems, reading poems, and paying close attention to the world.

Sit down. Be quiet.   
You must depend upon   
affection, reading, knowledge,   
skill—more of each   
than you have—inspiration,   
work, growing older, patience,   
for patience joins time   
to eternity. Any readers   
who like your poems,   
doubt their judgment. 
Make a place to sit down.  
 
Breathe with unconditional breath   
Shun electric wire.   
Communicate slowly. Live   
a three-dimensioned life;   
stay away from screens.   
Stay away from anything   
that obscures the place it is in.   
There are no unsacred places;   
there are only sacred places   
and desecrated places. 
the unconditioned air. 

Accept what comes from silence.   
Of the little words that come   
out of the silence, like prayers   
prayed back to the one who prays,   
make a poem that does not disturb   
the silence from which it came.
Make the best you can of it.   

How To Be a Poet by Wendell Perry | Source: Poetry (January 2001)