Here's some general advice. I hope I don't come off as egotistical for using my own writing in examples. I am mediocre at best when it comes to my own writing, but I do know what I'm talking about.
I could give a line-by-line but I think you should work from this first.
First off, the goal of poetry is to convey your feelings to your reader. You implied that you thought "Steps" isn't easily understood. While there is a difference between something not being understood because the readers can't be bothered to try and understand it and the meaning of something being so obscure that even someone who ponders it thoroughly would be clueless, keep in mind that you should be giving the reader everything they need to follow your train of thought. Cliches lose their meaning because of how overused they are. Try to avoid overused phrases or words - try to find unconventional ways to express things.
Use poetic devices. These are essential to a piece of poetry - poetry without poetic devices is technically just prose. Metaphor and imagery are both particularly important in poetry. Avoid telling the reader directly how you feel; instead, give them a situation to relate to. ("Show, don't tell.") For instance, instead of saying you're upset you could say why you're upset. I advise avoiding words that directly pertain to your emotions. (I'd suggest reading this. It's more related to prose than poetry but the two are similar in this aspect:
http://users.wirefir...tritt/tip1.html)
Repetition can add to a poem or detract from it. If you intend to repeat a phrase, it ought to be something strong enough to deserve the attention you're giving it. Keep in mind that sounding pretty comes second to effectively conveying your feelings when you're writing.
On that note, focus on your word choice. I never paid that much attention to my word choice until lately, and with my most recent writing I've made a point to do a thorough edit where I'll revise pretty much every adjective or verb in the writing. Avoiding conventional or practical words can strengthen your writing. For instance, in one of my somewhat recent poems (recent is a few months for me, really) I was comparing love to drowning. Rather than simply saying "drowning", I described the act of drowning like so:
Quote
but I've heard that these waves
are like quicksand:
they'll cuff your wrists
and walk on top of you, a careening ceiling
that will tear out your humanity
and stomp it into your face.
Through my imagery and word choice, I was able to compare love to drowning while also suggesting that love is apathetic to your own feelings and will relentlessly harm you: it isn't something you can walk away from unscathed.
Moving on - keep in mind that line breaks are only line breaks. They don't imply punctuation and they aren't the ends of phrases. When you're writing poetry, you should be able to remove all the line breaks and it will still read grammatically correctly. You don't need to capitalize the first letter of every line, or put a comma at the end of every line. Generally, your writing should be in complete sentences. (There are exceptions to this.) When it comes to punctuation, writers generally choose between all or nothing. If you're going to use commas, use periods and all other necessary punctuation as well. If not, don't use any punctuation. This is a stylistic choice - however, keep in mind that you have to know the rules before you're permitted to break them.
Lastly: the most important aspects of writing are the subtleties and fine details. You shouldn't be shouting everything you want your reader to know - you should give them just enough information so that your writing would require thought and rereading to understand. I like being able to continue to ponder a piece of writing or art after viewing it and know that there's more to the piece of artwork than what's explicitly stated.
I think I've already written far too much in this post - if you'd ever like my advice on anything then I'd be more than happy to help. I think I enjoy critique and helping others about as much as I enjoy writing myself.
Edited by Guy Mannly, 17 May 2010 - 22:51.
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They may seem totally weird or impossible to understand to you all. But it actually holds a deeper meaning. "Love" and "Nelected" was written for my friends due to their love problems. "Steps" was actually for me. Cookies to those who can figure out what "Steps" meant 
