1. Meaning should rise out of things. Don't think in abstractions, then translate your ideas into images. Start with images. The ideas are already there.

2. Put yourself on the line. Write about your subject; don't write a poem about yourself writing a poem about. . . That might have seemed clever in Donne's day, but now it is just a pervasive and destructive mannerism.

3. If you use rhyme, the rhyme word must seem not adequate, but inevitable.

4. Keep your poem with you for a while. The Roman poet, Horace said "for seven years," but of course no one really does that. Time, though, gives a much clearer perspective. It is a truism that poets almost always overrate their own work. Tradition says "vanity," but I don't think it's that at all. The real problem is tunnel vision. The poet concentrates so hard on what he is trying to do that he can only measure success in how well he succeeds at that, forgetting that there are other necessary elements, and only noticing them after the poem has had time to cool. Try to remember that you need to do a variety of things well.

5. Practice with rhyme and meter; they will improve your ear. Modern poetry workshops are deficient in this respect; perhaps that is why no contemporary poet can write with the crispness of Pound and Eliot who grew up with traditional poetry.

6. If you are writing in a fixed form and don't have enough material, don't stretch what you have; add new material. Add too much, then find ways to fit it all in.

7. If you have a specific statement you have been waiting to make, leave it out. Leave it out even if you wrote the poem especially to contain it. You'll be forcing the shoe onto the foot. The poem should say itself, not what you want it to.

8. If there is one phrase you are particularly proud of, view it with suspicion. It should probably be cut.

9. Don't be afraid to go back to a topic or image in later poems. Once you have truly used it up, you will not longer feel tempted by it.

10. If you are writing about events, don't let the literal facts spoil a good story. On the other hand, don't spoil a complex story by reducing it to cliche.