One phrase we use often in poetry is "show don't tell" - it's better to *show* feelings through concrete description, vs. telling someone what they should feel.

Feelings are a huge part of poetry still, and writing to express our feelings is a huge part of poetry - but "gushiness" drives readers away. Most of the time your reader is a stranger, and a stranger doesn't want to hear about how "he broke up with me and I'm so sad". Expressing these feelings through story or metaphor are a stronger and less awkward way of showing these feelings. For example, "It's fall again: everything dies. Each leaf has grown only to fall dry through the air, out of reach of its companions and utterly alone."

Ted Kooser goes into more depth in this excerpt from page 60:

One of the hardest things to learn is how poems can express strong feelings without expressly stating those feelings. Part of the problem is that in everyday conversation we often quite freely make statements about feelings: "The kids' goldfish died and they really felt bad"... A poem begins with description and follows description all the way through, letting the behavior of the participants show us how they feel... I know how to appropriately respond to that kind of description, and have quite strong feelings from it without the poet telling me how she wants me to feel...

When it comes to expressing feelings, each of us knows not to walk right up to a total stranger on a street corner, somebody waiting for a light to change, and immediately say "My lover just left me and I AM ABOUT READY TO FREAK OUT!" We know that if we did, the stranger would likely take off running against the red light. But if we're friendly, and casually draw that stranger into a conversation, then begin walking along with her, it may be possible to tell her how much trouble we're in by the time we get to the end of the next block.

It's not a bad idea to test the opening lines of your poems against this example, because that stranger, your reader, can quite easily be turned away by the first words you write... Your reader is right there on the other side of the table, politely and patiently listening to you. How long do you dare go on about the misery of your hemorrhoids are causing you?

Sometimes with beginning poets I tell them that they are forbidden to write about their feelings. In other words, they cannot make overt statements of feeling. This throws them back upon scene and mood and pacing and other devices through which they must convey their emotions. It's good discipline. You might try it!