I had (have had, and will likely continue to have) a discussion about what makes a writer, or a singer or a photographer. An -er of some sort. While my views have refined themselves over the years I still hold (mostly) to a definition I came up with in University. An -er is someone who not only produces something, but also maintains a relationship — of a two-way sort — with an audience. There are all sorts of quibbles, exceptions, misunderstandings and outright illogic about it, especially when you talk about/add in things like ego, volume vs quality, the difference between art and craft and what makes a teacher a teacher and not just a teacher. But mostly I stick to it. As Mssr. Henderson of Chilliwack put it, “…if there’s no audience, there just-a ain’t no show. Whoa, whoa.”

By this definitions Emily Dickinson was not a poet (or poeter as I like to call them). When I repeat that, it generally makes Leslie cringe.

Banksy, on the other hand, is all sorts of -er. I don’t know what other people think about that.