I think that in poetry, as in life, it is certainly harder to express feelings than actions. Much of the power of poetry (which began as song) is found in its sounds, whether hard or soft, vowel or consonant, whisper or wail. When I hear a song for the first time (and many times after that), I don't pay attention to the words. It's the music that moves me, makes me care or not care, and after that I can listen to the words. The words come through the mist of the music, so to speak, and our unconscious minds hear them whether we're trying or not.

I'm not sure that specific sounds correlate to specific feelings, but a combination of sounds (like hard consonants marching across a line together) can help express certain feelings, or at least evoke a mood, set a tone.

By the way, I LOVE this forum. It thrills me to see so many people reading poems so carefully, and responding to each other so politely. My hat is off to all of you, and to Robert Pinsky for starting this in the first place.