Too Many Poets?

The following quote is taken from Ted Kooser's (current Poet Laureate of the US) recent book entitled The Poetry Home Repair Manual.
--
A noted contemporary poet and critic has said we ought to keep poetry a secret from the masses. Another, the editor of a prestigious anthology of poetry, said that each nation ought to have no more than a handful of poets. Both sound pretty elitist, don't they? Well, we'll always have among us those who think the best should be reserved for the few. 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."
--
So, instead of taking a gun to someone's head, or your own for that matter, write a poem. Spill your guts metaphorically across a clean, white page with carefully chosen words and lucid linguistic imagery. You'll feel better and so might someone else.