A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary greatly in different cultures and time periods. Throughout each civilization and language, poets have used various styles that have changed through the course of literary history, resulting in a history of poets as diverse as the literature they have produced.

The English word "poet" is derived from the French poète, itself descended from the Latin first-declension masculine noun poeta, meaning "poet". The word "poetry" derives from the Latin feminine noun poetria, meaning not "poetry" but "poetess".

French poet Arthur Rimbaud summarized the "poet" by writing,

A poet makes himself a visionary through a long, boundless, and systematized disorganization of all the senses. All forms of love, of suffering, of madness; he searches himself, he exhausts within himself all poisons, and preserves their quintessences. Unspeakable torment, where he will need the greatest faith, a superhuman strength, where he becomes all men: the great invalid, the great criminal, the great accursed—and the Supreme Scientist! For he attains the unknown! Because he has cultivated his soul, already rich, more than anyone! He attains the unknown, and, if demented, he finally loses the understanding of his visions, he will at least have seen them! So what if he is destroyed in his ecstatic flight through things unheard of, unnameable: other horrible workers will come; they will begin at the horizons where the first one has fallen!

Tigran Hamasyan (born July 17, 1987) is an Armenian jazz pianist. He plays mostly original compositions, which are strongly influenced by the Armenian folk tradition, often using its scales and modalities. In addition to Tigran's folk influence, he is much influenced by American jazz tradition and to some extent, as on his album Red Hail, by progressive rock. His most recent album, entitled A Fable, which is a solo album, is most strongly influenced by Armenian folk music. Even on his most overt jazz compositions and renditions of well-known jazz pieces, his improvisations often contain embellishments based on scales from Middle Eastern/South Western Asian traditions.

As leader

As sideman

Maverick Sabre (born Michael Stafford; 12 July 1990 in Hackney, London) is an Irish-English singer-songwriter and rapper. Associated with genres such as R&B and folk, Sabre is known for his eerie vocals and guitar playing. In January 2011, Sabre appeared on Professor Green's single "Jungle", which peaked at number 31 in the UK Singles Chart. His debut EP, The Lost Words was released on 7 March 2011, with the single "Look What I've Done" preceding that release the week before.

Maverick Sabre was born in Hackney, London. At the age of four Sabre moved to Ireland, where he grew up in New Ross, County Wexford, but later - following the suggestion of UK singer/rapper Plan B - returned to London to pursue a musical career.

Andrei Arsenyevich Tarkovsky (Russian: Андре́й Арсе́ньевич Тарко́вский; April 4, 1932 – December 29, 1986) was a Soviet and Russian filmmaker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director, widely regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of the 20th century.

Tarkovsky's films include Andrei Rublev, Solaris, The Mirror, and Stalker. He directed the first five of his seven feature films in the Soviet Union; his last two films were produced in Italy and Sweden, respectively. They are characterized by spirituality and metaphysical themes, long takes, lack of conventional dramatic structure and plot, and distinctively authored use of cinematography.

Film director Ingmar Bergman said of Tarkovsky:

Tarkovsky was born in the village of Zavrazhye in Ivanovo Oblast, the son of poet and translator Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky, native of Kirovohrad, Ukraine, and Maria Ivanova Vishnyakova, a graduate of the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute.