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Physical Danger

Hold the poem far away just in case it explodes. (Source)

The question of physical danger is an interesting one. Sitting at a desk writing all day might not seem like a particularly dangerous thing to do—unless you're prone to running around with uncapped pens, in which case look out—but poets actually have the shortest life expectancy of all writers.

It could be because they're usually poor and can't afford health insurance, or it could be because the troubled life that led some of them to become poets in the first place also led them to the kinds of decisions that end up causing more harm than good. That whole "struggling artist" thing is totally real: Sylvia Plath, John Berryman, Anne Sexton, Hart Crane, Christopher Marlowe—the list goes on of poets who met an untimely demise.

So just be careful, okay? Tomorrow's going to be better.