Is poetry/lit Craft? No. Perform? No. What?

[Tetsubo]

Creating it? Craft.

Being able to recite it well, make the poem come to life, make everyone feel the words to their bones? Perform.

Perform is making other people enjoy it somehow. Even with the worst poem in the world the best person with perform might be able to make it seem golden.

To actually make a great poem that anyone would love, that you have to actually make.

Craft.

I think Scion has it down here.

Both I and my fiance are poets (though I'm more of a hack). While we can both Craft a poem she is by far the better Performer of the poetry. It was in fact the first time I heard her recite one of her works that I stared to fall in love with her. I'm a hopeful romantic.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Just to chime in:

Are you making something that will have an in-game effect? Craft.

Are you entertaining an audience? Perform

Are you doing something else that you could potentially do as a job, and/or do you want a wide array of craft skills that will have zero in-game effect beyond money making? Profession.

In short, profession is a "well, if it's not on this list, and it's not a craft, knowledge or performance skill, what is it?" filler. Avoid using it unless for flavour.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

I'm comfortable with it being a Craft skill. That's how the government sees it in real life, BTW. I’m able to avoid all sorts of local taxes because I’m not in the resale business (which I have been in the past). My publishing company “creates” rather than “re-sells,” so I don’t have to worry about several sorts of taxes that apply to re-sellers.

A recital or live reading of a work is a performance, but when you create something you are using the Craft skill.

Someone above mentioned recording music. Again, if it is a live recording (at a concert, perhaps) it would be Perform, but a studio recording is definitely a Craft. The artist may be “performing” in the studio, but the engineer, the producer and anyone else involved with the editing, mixing, and production are using “Craft” to create the best recording possible from the various performances.

As for "profession," I think that would be involved more with your ability to sell your craft, sometimes via performances, but also through finding distributors, retailers and an audience. The Profession skill would also involve your ability to write a business plan, balance the books, and run a basic marketing plan.

Edit:
[shamelss plug] BTW, I just released a sort of short prose poem, right here. check out my Craft (writing) skill!
And, no, I won't be giving any performances.
[/shameless plug]

 

[green slime]

Great stuff, Elder Basilisk! Inspiring reading all those names from ages bygone! Maybe I should dust off a few of those moldy books at the back of the library...

 

[Zimri]

Those are good points I see craft and profession differently then most I guess.

TO ME. Craft requires something "tangible" (that you can see, pick up, and manipulate) to be made. So definately if you are writing the poem down then that is some kind of craft. But if it is just "in your head" having never been written down you "thought" of something but never "crafted" anything so it's profession.

Since you have to think it up before you write it down (or well in most cases the two happen rather simultaneously) I would go with Profession: poet, Perform: oratory (probably let sing substitute freely too) and Craft: penmanship as the base for a "working" poet. If you want to be historical, or have local knowledge in there, or use a "secret code" I would add in knowledge:history, Knowledge:local, gather information, and bluff as associated skills.

 

[Li Shenron]

Frankly, I have a hard time believing you can represent poetry with just a skill... or any other talent in creating a piece of art.

You can put under Craft the mechanical skills of your hands and mind, such as being effective at mixing colours in a painting, or drawing perfect lines, but that wouldn't let you paint a truly piece of art. It would stil be just a piece of craft. You can learn the tricks of writing a drama/comedy screenplay and gather experience by writing many, but that wouldn't make you Shakespeare or Woody Allen.

You can put under Perform the personal ability to entertain a crowd, to enthrall the viewers/listeners, and you can improve that throughout your lives and actors almost always become better as they age, but that would still be an interpretation of something existing, at best it could be an improvisation, only that the improvising goes far beyond interpreting...

But you cannot become a better "artist" by just exercise. You can of course expand or improve your tecnique, but talent I am afraid not very much... also I can't think how - by the game's definitions - someone with more Int or Cha should be a better poet... she would be a more smart poet, or a more charismatic one.

Well this is my 2cp. If I really had to make it a skill I would choose Profession, but only because Profession itself is always treated as a quite unidetifiable thing after all.