Show, Don't Tell

Don't say "I was sad." Show sadness. Don't say "she was beautiful"—show it. Readers experience poems through specific detail, not explanation. When you tell readers how to feel, they don't actually feel it.

When you show—through image, action, dialogue, sensory detail—readers must recreate the scene in their minds. "The hospital smelled like bleach and fear" shows fear through smell. "I was afraid" just states it. "Love is complex" doesn't work, but "She said she loved me / and meant it / and resented me for it" shows love's paradox.

This is poetry's cardinal rule. Trust specific detail over abstract explanation.