There are several approaches you may take to editing a poem. For most poetry, here are five poetry elements I recommend focusing on:

1. Precision: Word choice. Seek out fresh words/descriptions for every word you see!

2. Show, don’t tell. Don’t teach, preach or explain overtly, when you can do it through images (metaphors!), actions and stinky cheese smells.

3. Clarity. Does it ALL make sense? It should. While touching on the abstract is fine, being vague, or having jumbled grammar or simply wrong word choices is a no-no.

4. Trim the fat. If you don’t NEED it, it goes. Slash boldly! Especially notice all words, situations or ideas that are repeated.

5. Development. Is it long enough to cover your subject thoroughly, and do it justice?

Try these steps on the poem below, turned in by a student. By the time you are done, it should be virtually unrecognizable.

Also: Note the inclusion of these criteria in the score sheets for the Setting Poem and Person Poem.

For the record, here's one edited version of the poem above that I think may not be fully developed, but at least trims the fat and is more precise/original in terms of how it phrases the images.