The poem I write usually finds me.  I just record it.  Something happens to me.  I just have to get it down.  Or lose it.  And in the beginning I do not edit at all.  That comes later.  I can never predict when my poems come.  At that point getting it down and working on it is the most important thing in the whole world.  I just obey my Muse.  I usually know when I am done.  There are no more words.  The hard work comes later–the editing that is.  I am lucky.  I can run poems by my wife.  She has good instincts.