1) Read incessantly and all across the board. Poetry is not basketball. Many poets live long lives, so you compete with the best from the beginning. Reading is daily practice and engagement with the thing you desire. Read poems, fiction, non-fiction, and everything else you can get your hands on.
2) Read poems until they are understood. The longer you write the more you will learn about form, but in the beginning simple comprehension can be difficult. Poetry often challenges conventional thinking. Poetry seeks to represent a precise moment on the page. Language is not merely a bucket in poetry with some standard meaning in it. Poets craft the poem on the page, and work the connotations as much as they present the meaning. Great poems are weave together meanings that go beneath the surface. If you are confused and don't understand, be humble about it. Say this is a poem I read, but have not yet read. You can always go back.
3) Read poems aloud. This tactic helps most with what you don't understand. Essentially to poetry is the rhythm and pace of the language, the sound of the voice. When you encounter poems you don't understand read them aloud a couple of times to see if you listen differently when the words come out of your mouth. Pay attention to your tongue and the way your mouth makes the sounds. Mind the pauses and line-breaks. Sound has its own meaning and part of the poet's job is to understand and employ that music.
4) Write everyday if only for a few minutes. . Years ago, I sat in on a workshop with a well known poet where he stressed the connection between writing and reading. I personally read first and then write. If I am intoxicated by what I am reading and have allocated two or three hours for reading and writing; I forgo the writing for that day. The process of developing as a writer can be summarized in a breathing in and out. Reading is breathing in, writing is breathing out.
5) Develop relationships with writers to discuss your work and the work of others. Reading, writing, and a community of writers represent the internal aspect of the art, the things that you can control. Every great writers has dialogue with great minds via books. Social media, clubs, schools, and workshops all represent ways to establish these relationships. A writer's community keeps you in sync with what is new and hip. A writer's community calls your attention to the wide expanse of literature created. A writer's community provides you with eyes for your work in a profession that is defined by its isolation. The work of other writers in your presence challenges and invigorates you to the challenge of getting better at your job.
6) If you decide to get an M.F.A. choose one where a writer you admire or would like to study with is on the faculty. If there is no one that you imagine yourself studying with, attend the State School and get the cheapest rate. M.F.A. programs are justified to administration for the cash value they have. It is an expensive proposition to study to be a poet; and often one that doesn't justify the returns.
7) Pay attention to trends and at least look for an intersection of your writing with trends. Poetry is more and more competitive. Though poets in particular imagine the most noble aims connected to truth, justice, and the human spirit, their work enters into the public sphere via connections with what is going on in society. Economics, diversity issues, and the news all influence poetry's reception and promotion in the world outside writer's communities. Know the fluctuations of the market and position your work accordingly.
