I copied Jane's answer when I asked her how her poetry had improved so much in just three years.

"I think Neopoet can take a fair degree of credit in helping to shape what I write today. The workshop environment helps for one thing, but reading other poets helps enormously.
We have some superb ones here.

Workshops help too, even if it's a subject you have some familiarity with, the discipline is good.

I also went back and read favourite poets - Betjeman, Eliot, Yeats, Frost, The Romantics, The Metaphysical poets, although instead of putting them down without understanding, I persevered, until I did. I read what other poets were saying, and concentrated on how they were saying it.

But more than any thing else, it was my Dad, dying. It ignited a spark. I had to write and found I had so much to say."

To sum up-
1. Neopoet is cool. Reading and critiquing other poets.
2. The workshops are useful.
3. Reading great poets helps. Reading carefully, not just what they say but how they say it.
4. Write what you need to, something important to you.