Your poems can be written in most any style: from specific form with meter and rhyme (such as a sonnets or villanelles) to free verse to prose poetry. But keep in mind that form follows function. Structure should arise out of content and context. Each word must be loaded, pregnant with meaning. Each line break should be intentional.

Poems take up very little space (usually), so your task is far more complex than that of a short story writer's, in the sense of making choices about words, punctuation, and construction. We are not opposed to end-rhyme poetry, but you should realize that there is a lot of bad rhyming poetry out there, so use caution and consideration when doing so. Also, be careful of overwrought sentimentality. Show us how to feel it, but don't cram it down our throats. 

We like to see unusual language events, analogy and imagery that work together, ironic narrative, and understatement. But mostly, we like to read poems that makes us think: Wow, I've never heard it put that way before.

Here is a resource site that details moves in contemporary poetry that editors are seeing occur often in submissions.  It may be helpful.

 Amber Clark is a graduate of The College of William & Mary and The Radcliffe Publishing Institute at the Center for Advanced Study at Harvard, she also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Queens University at Charlotte. She teaches English and literature at Northwest Florida State College as well as Gulf Coast Community College.

Most recently, her work can be found in Pebble Lake Review, SandScript, Slow Trains, Underground Window, and Poetry365.