Poet

poet
    n 1: a writer of poems (the term is usually reserved for writers
         of good poetry)
    

Poet \Po"et\, n. [F. po["e]te, L. po["e]ta, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to
   make. Cf. {Poem}.]
   One skilled in making poetry; one who has a particular genius
   for metrical composition; the author of a poem; an
   imaginative thinker or writer.
   [1913 Webster]

         The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
         Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven.
                                                  --Shak.
   [1913 Webster]

         A poet is a maker, as the word signifies. --Dryden.
   [1913 Webster]

   {Poet laureate}. See under {Laureate}.
      [1913 Webster]
    

113 Moby Thesaurus words for "poet":
      Meistersinger, Parnassian, advertising writer, annalist, arch-poet,
      art critic, author, authoress, ballad maker, balladist,
      balladmonger, bard, beat poet, belletrist, bibliographer,
      bucoliast, coauthor, collaborator, columnist, compiler, composer,
      copywriter, creative artist, creative writer, critic, dance critic,
      diarist, drama critic, dramatist, elegist, encyclopedist,
      epic poet, essayist, fancier, fantasist, fantast, fili, free lance,
      free-lance writer, ghost, ghostwriter, humorist, idyllist,
      imaginer, imagist, inditer, inventor, jongleur, laureate,
      librettist, literary artist, literary craftsman, literary critic,
      literary man, litterateur, logographer, lyricist, magazine writer,
      major poet, maker, man of letters, metrist, minnesinger,
      minor poet, minstrel, modernist, monographer, muse, music critic,
      mythicizer, mythifier, mythmaker, mythopoet, newspaperman,
      novelettist, novelist, occasional poet, odist, pamphleteer,
      pastoral poet, pastoralist, penwoman, poet laureate, poetaster,
      poetress, prose writer, reviewer, rhapsode, rhapsodist, rhymer,
      rhymester, satirist, scenario writer, scenarist, scop, scribe,
      scriptwriter, short-story writer, skald, sonneteer, storyteller,
      symbolist, technical writer, troubadour, trouveur, trovatore,
      vers libriste, vers-librist, versemaker, versifier, word painter,
      wordsmith, writer