Another true confession from yours truly: 
I think that the DJ is one of the main metaphors that informs my understanding of what it means to be a poet. I love the idea that a poet takes "things as they are," to borrow Stevens’ phrase and then arranges them to create another world. The aim of the poem is to transport THE PEOPLE into a new state of being.
This metaphor is pure fantasy on my part. I’ve never been a disc jockey, a mixmaster, or anything else of that sort. I rarely go to clubs. But I like this idea of what the poet is up to.
Most recently, Jay’s post on the Kleptones reminded me of this idea, in that they are a "collage band." How cool is that? Sometimes I like to listen to DJ Spooky too.
I wonder if you have a metaphor that (consciously? semi-unconsciously?) informs your identity as an artist?
The churl. A figure in dramaturgy? at any rate, there in any number of Henry James novels, a character whose unhappiness won’t quite allow the satelite of characters around the protagonist to act in as easy a manner as they would like. In Wharton’s House of Mirth, the churl is varied into the type of the Jew, Mr. Rosedale.
I am a pile of gravel. Or a ball of steel wool. Heh. Actually, when it’s going well, I am an electric spark.