You owe reality nothing and the truth about your feelings everything.
Don't write love poems when you're in love. Write them when you're not in love.
To write a poem you must have a streak of arrogance-- not in real life I hope. In real life try to be nice. It will save you a hell of a lot of trouble and give you more time to write.
A good creative-writing teacher can save a good writer a lot of time.
Never write a poem about anything that ought to have a poem written about it.
Maximum sentence length: seventeen words. Minimum:one No semicolons. Semicolons indicate relationships that only idiots need defined by punctuation. Besides, they are ugly. Make sure each sentence is at least four words longer or shorter than the one before it.