"...the poet's profession is not something peaceful, their words uncontested or inconsequential in their impact upon everyday thought, nor the fate of rulers or the reputations of the worthy or unworthy alike. To be a poet is to be combative, not only in words but in ideas. To take up the poet's mantle is not to express one's self alone in a battle for authenticity amidst a banal world, it is to speak for the people, but also for the land, the legacy of the ancestors, and occasionally for the gods themselves in a struggle which has the entire world as stakes. To be a fili is to stand against a wave, and with one's words to turn those waves back when necessary."
Dr. Philip A. Bernhardt-House in The Well of Five Streams: Essays on Celtic Paganism by Erynn Rowan Laurie
