This is another of those tips from Writing 101 or even further back that everyone should know, but we sometimes forget. The statement of the idea in the title was Peter Berryman’s during his e-mail interview for the book. A poetry stanza or section is like a prose paragraph. Each stanza or paragraph should have its own theme or reason. It should develop the idea or plot or a character of the poem. It shouldn’t be stuck in the poem for no apparent reason.