Rules of Thumb

Mary Biddinger: "My Unwritten Poetry Rules" -- with several others sharing their own self-imposed guidelines in the comments section.

.OOOOOOO.

"Craft and style are essential to honing emotional content into something greater than mere confession or less appealing forms of monomania -- I'm not wholly enthralled with the idea of poetry being a substitute for therapy or group-groping apologetics -- but the continual emphasis on poets and poetry as subject matter represents a flight from the standard practice of poetry as an extraordinary way to fathom that unexplainable condition of being human."
~ Ted Burke, "No More Poems About Poetry"

.OOOOOOO.

Young Poets
by Nicanor Parra

Write as you will
In whatever style you like
Too much blood has run under the bridge
To go on believing
That only one road is right.

In poetry everything is permitted.

With only this condition of course,
You have to improve the blank page.

(trans. by Miller Williams)