I've been going through the poetry articles in the knowledge base, and I found that some of them take a really long time to say something simple, which means few people read them. So, let's go over some of those tips in quick form!
1. Punctuation: Punctuate your poetry like prose, unless you're experimenting. Punctuation helps your reader to read your poem.
2. Navel-Gazing: This means writing poems about yourself for yourself. When you post on YWS, try to post poems that are accessible to other readers.
3. Rhyming and Structure: If you're writing a rhyming or structured poem, make sure you say what you MEAN to say, and don't change the meaning to fit the rhyme.
4. Critiquing: When critiquing a poem, focus not on the punctuation, but on the content.
a. Content can be how well pieces of the poem work together.
b. Content can be if the poem flowed in a logical order.
c. Content can be if similes, metaphors, or other poetic devices made sense.
d. Content can be many things.
5. Reading: Read poetry, and read a lot of poetry. You can't know poetry unless you read it, and even then you only know what you've read.
