From “Definition of a Poet” by Jack Kerouac 

A poet is a blind optimist. 
The world is against him for 
many reasons. But the 
poet persists. He believes 
that he is on the right track, 
no matter what any of his 
fellow men say. In his 
eternal search for truth, the 
poet is alone. 
He tries to be timeless in a 
society built on time. 

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) was a pioneer of the Beat Generation, a literary subculture movement which included writers and poets such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, and Herbert Huncke. He is most known of his 1957 autobiographical, novel, On the Road, which is based on his travels across the United States. His poem, “Definition of a Poet,” can be read in the pages of Atop an Underwood: Early Stories and Other Writings (Penguin).