Poets don't drive, you know

They don't. Show me a poet who can drive and I'll show you a bad poet. This is my response to my wife who is trying to get me, at my advanced age, to take driving lessons on the basis that, since we live in Misty Hollow Brigadoonshire, it would make the quality of our life inestimably better for us and our small children if both of us could drive. She puts forward a good argument but luckily I have Martin Amis on my side who wrote an essay on the subject. The only exception to the 'good poets don't drive' rule is Philip Larkin, but Amis implies Larkin's creativity began to dry as soon as he got behind a steering wheel.