How to Write a Love Poem

I'll be the first to admit that most of my poetry is dark and bordering on depressing. Silvia Plaith has nothing on some of the verse that flows from my pen, and it's not something that I typically share - it's pulled from the recesses of my emotions and works like a cleansing purge, getting rid of all the things I don't want to be thinking about anymore. Despite that, I actually like the dark, macabre turns of phrase that I come up with.

Sit me down to write a love poem for my beloved, though, and I start to feel like I have the vocabulary of my 6 year old.

The other day, though, that same little girl wrote me a story - well, as much of one as a child learning to read can write. My point is that the story was beautiful, and touching, and it made me realize something: children speak right from the heart. They say exactly what they're feeling, instead of worrying about how their words are placed and what kinds of "hidden meaning" might be weaved into the verse. With simple language, they can turn a loved one's heart into butterflies and bring more than a couple of tears.

With this thought firmly in mind, I decided it was time to try my hand at the love poem again - this time, forgetting that I'm an adult with a strong vocabulary. I decided it was time to concentrate on the emotions, instead of the words.

Ditch the Internet

Yeah, I know, there's lots of places online that let you print love poems, and there are even a few websites that will "generate" a love poem for you. So, instead of giving into temptation, print this article and turn your computer off. Seriously ... have you done it yet? Good, let's go!

Now that you're away from the temptation of the digital screen (okay, so maybe you're cheating and still sitting here looking at your computer, but I'm going to pretend that you're not), you can concentrate more completely on emotion instead of words. There's no spell-checker when you're using a pencil and notebook. You can't run to the online thesaurus, and you're not going to be able to browse the classics for inspiration. You don't need it, trust me.