How do you write poetry?

[Achebe]

I see music in poetry and that is why I like to feel the flow of metre, like rhyming, do not shun clichés and try to make the construction convey emotion.
I know that is an old fashioned attitude that doesn't suit everyone, but it is my pleasure and at 78 I feel it's OK to be old fashioned and selfish enough to please myself. I'm just pleased and grateful that I don't seem to be on my own!

off-topic: your point about being 78 made me think of Ruth Stone, who was named poet laureate of Vermont at 92 (so you have 14 years to practice for that!)
she wrote so well: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/177510