Poem manufacture

So, I'm doing an online poetry course "How to Make a Poem". This is my homework!

Thinking about a craftsperson (see how politically correct I am) and how they might painstakingly create a thing, a chair, a bicycle, a painting etc. What are a poet's tools, their materials, can their "work" be compared.

In my head I want to argue with the word "work". Sometimes a craft isn't work, even if it's mechanical, it's an art form. If it's done for enjoyment of the person creating it, does that make it not work. If it's done for someone else to enjoy, does that then make it work. I have no answers.

I do think that poetry, in the hands of someone who knows what they are doing has, for me, the same value as a perfectly built bicycle, made out of carefully considered components, attuned to each other. Simply having the best components all installed well onto a bicycle doesn't make it a great bicycle. The right things have to work together, in harmony, just selecting the right combination is part of the "work" in putting together the perfect bicycle. Except, there is no such thing as a perfect bicycle. Shock, horror. There isn't. A bicycle is intensely personal to the individual riding it, their geometry, their strength, their skills, their love of roads or rocks, of climbing or descending. It isn't possible to have one machine which is perfect for every single person and every single use. Hell, I have four bicycles and there are maybe tiny bits of imperfection on each one. One has a creaking bottom bracket. One has forks that don't always work. One has a saddle which after time isn't comfortable. One has bottle cages which can't both take 750ml bottles. You know what I'm saying, there isn't one perfect bicycle, not even for just one person.

And so there are many poems, many forms, for many different occasions and one which strikes a chord for me might not for someone else. And similarly, the words are selected with care but work differently when combined with other words. And the aim of the piece is up for grabs, even whether there is an aim. Perhaps the "aim" changes as the poem is shaped, the direction evolves, it isn't what was planned. It might not have a message, it might have a message. The poet uses tools to amalgamate their words in a meaningful way. Tools like rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, metaphor, all those poetic devices.

Concise? Not necessarily. Clear or unclear. In your face or clouded. There isn't a final outcome or a one size fits all.