Complex sentence: He has been described as a "lifelong political activist, antiwar organizer, poet and essayist," but argued that he was not qualified to be called a poet and would prefer to be labeled as someone who "occasionally writes some poetry as well".
Split into simpler sentences: He has been described as a "lifelong political activist, antiwar organizer, poet and essayist," but argued that he was not qualified to be called a poet. He stated that he would prefer to be labeled as a person who "occasionally writes some poetry as well".