The very best poems are always artifacts of powerful emotion. If you are in love, you have some great material to work with. If you are not in love, but just want to get something from someone, I suggest diamonds, a car, an apartment, or at least very expensive food.

To write a love poem for someone, start by remembering all of your favorite times together, in as much detail as possible.

Pick up a large legal pad and jot them down. I hope this takes more than a few minutes. If it doesn't, perhaps you should give this whole idea further thought, but, I digress...

Circle the one memory that carries the most emotion for you. It must be very specific. Birds, bees, and sycamore trees are not personal, original, or moving for anyone, unless, of course, you were sitting under a tree with your girl and a bird dropped a little something on your head. Yes, it happened to my husband. He didn't tell me until much later, but, I digress...

Imagine that you are making a movie. Set the scene. What was the weather like? Where were you? What else was going on? Write it all down so someone who was not there could be transported into that place and time just by reading your words. Feel it. Feel the sun, if there was sun, on your arms, and smell the air. Was it filled with the scent of the ocean, or of a nearby popcorn stand? What sounds did you hear?

Now, introduce the actors. Were you alone? Did she walk into the scene, or did you come to meet her? Were you together when the moment began? See it in your mind. Relive how it felt, and then describe it. Do not worry about meter or rhyme. Leave out punctuation and capitalization if you want to. Put yourself back into that memory with all of your heart and write it down.

Finally, imagine that, in this miniature movie you are making, the music comes up and the singer delivers the message. What did you want to tell your lover then, but could not? Those will be your sell-the closing lines.

Here's one from a woman's point of view, mine, to be precise.

Cars roared
back and forth
on La Cienega.
We stood together
on the sidewalk,
and it seemed
we had always
been together.
The paintings
our teacher was showing
in the back rooms
of the galleries
were airplanes
frozen in midsky,
perfectly still,
yet roaring,
and my heart
was roaring
as I looked into
your gentle
blue eyes.
We went into
the cafe
before I could
tell you
that I wanted
I wanted
I wanted
to fall into
those eyes
forever.

Note: I just wrote that poem, but I will never forget our first date. He and I married a month later and have been lovers for 41 years.

Learn more about this author, Linda Armstrong.
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