This article analyzes the discourse of poetic writing in the works of Robert Melançon and Jacques Brault, highlighting some of their similarities and differences. In Robert Melançon’s books, the representations of the workshop and the idea of the poet as a craftsman are given significant importance. The workshop embodies certain values, such as tedious work, the understanding that a piece of writing is always an approximation and that even a published text should display imperfection, as well as the imperious necessity of writing. The figure of the poet as a craftsman and Melançon’s writing of the carpe diem, that attempts to capture ephemeral moments, are central to his reflection on poetic writing. Jacques Brault however, puts more emphasis on the figure of the reader, and the practice of re-writing other’s essential texts, or his own. The concept of writing as a chain of texts that echo each other over time permits an explanation of the metaphor of the path [le chemin] which is present in several of his book titles.