In a heartbeat

Seconding what @bocassell.bsky.social said above. Read, read, read. Read poems in styles you think you won't like. Give yourself permission to write some lousy poems. Billy Collins once said everyone has at least 200 bad poems in them that they have to get out of their system. Oh, and read.

I grew up in Charleston in the sixties and seventies. My neighbors and classmates were named Soferra, Sottile, Codespoti, Portaro, Patillo...you get the point. They came over in the same waves of immigration as my German and Irish grandparents and great grands. Never noticed a lack of self respect.