No one seems to understand my poetry?

Please don't. If hiding your poems meaning the way you write then you should keep at it. Make those people who read your poetry think really hard about it and try to depict what it means. After all, the best written forms of poetry in history were very pretty hard to find the meaning of it. Who knows maybe your poetry will be talked about in English classes within the next 100 years or somewhere around there.

People who have your talent are very hard to find now days, and they have a better chances of becoming a successful writer then anyone else. Trust me when I say this, don't change your style of writting. So what if your poetry is hard to find the meanings behind it all. It doesn't mean your poems are terrible!

I hope this has helped you in anyway possible.

Good luck!

You say you use metaphors, similes and lots of other things including a non linear structure. How do you expect any one to understand it when with all this, you attempt to hide the meaning.

Spend a little more time reading what other people have written

Make sure you have clear definitions of the methods you want to use.

Find out what an oxymoron is. Learn what a metaphor and a simile is.

Know what a linear structure is and why people use that structure.

A good writer will have read more than he has written.

Good Luck

With all due respect to some of the other answerers, it seems to me that the biggest cop out generally sounds something like, "Well, I have no idea what the poet is trying to say, but to me, this poem means...." Art, in any form, is the conscious and intelligent expression of emotion. That's a limited definition, but it will do for these purposes. If you accept that, then you can see that when a poet sets out to write a piece, he or she is consciously and intentionally creating something that is, by design, crafted to take you from point "A" to point "B", in an artful way. If you, as the reader, just don't "get it"----don't take that emotional journey intended by the author--- then either it is a bad poem, you haven't given it enough thought or energy, or it is a good poem and it is simply beyond you. Good poems are indeed the product of the concepts involved, the words and images used, the meter, etc, and they can be extremely dense in the sense that an appreciation of ALL of these factors may well be required to take the "journey" the poet has intended for you. So when considering a poem that might, at first, seem perplexing, please don't use the lazy reader's cop up. Try it again, and again. Worthwhile things rarely come easily.

The key to your problem is in your first statement. "I've shown my poetry to a few, very select people..." Try showing it to people who read a lot of poetry. Is there an English teacher or two at your school (if you are in school) who might enjoy it? You've got me curious now. Why not put some up here and see if anyone "gets it"? Should you stop writing how you feel? Please, cut off your feet so you can stumble along with the crowd. Plain speaking is for a logical argument, not poetry.

I do not think that you should change your poetry writing style even though people dont get it, it is your way of expression. personally, i like it when poems dont make the meaning so obvious, it lets the reader have some insight and really need to find the meaning for themselves, how they interpret it.

Your poem sounds "busy" (a lot going on). I think that true inspiration/idea/vision should never be wholly sacrificed for the sack of the audience. I would do a halfway compromise to a piece and see if your audience can understand the piece.

It's YOUR poetry so write it how YOU want it written. Sometimes others don't understand it or the meaning behind it. It's an expression of individuality and personality. So it should be personal to you. Keep writing.

well what kinda person are you to have things people can write read or say that is really about you otherwise poems made by people are just things anyone can think and we will all get our turn to do and say every single one of them!

No, you should not stop writing. The most important person already understands it. You! You write for yourself, not for others.

extremely tough thing. browse with yahoo or google. just that might help!