This hybrid critical/creative essay discusses the vocation of being a poet and the attendant problems of earning a living. It describes the lure and attraction of writing poetry, employment history, barriers to the academic world and an eventual, fruitful encounter with it, as well as ideas associated with creativity and play. The original poems included, largely in the prose poetry form, work in counterpoint with discussion of key issues surrounding the poetic vocation as an example of the wider topic of the protean career and cultural vocations, with particular reference to sociologist Vincent Dubois.
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