06-13-2015, 05:36 AM
It's not a bad idea to start out by reading some of the poems posted in Serious -- most (but not all!) are quite accomplished and that's generally where you can see the workshop process working best. You might not feel comfortable critiquing there for a while though. Don't ever be afraid to ask questions -- your best bet, to get a good range of replies, is probably starting a discussion thread just like you have here. Chances are that if you've wondered about it, so has someone else. Also, there are some marvellous poems posted in Miscellaneous by people who are playing with forms and concepts and just generally loving to write without the heavy critique requirement. You'll soon see that there is no one way to write poetry (no matter what your high school teachers tried to tell you!) and there is no substitute for just giving it a shot yourself. Don't ever take criticism of your poem to be criticism of you -- everyone here is just trying to help you write the best poems you can.
It could be worse