How to Write a Valentine's Day Love Poem

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and it's not too late to do something really special for your loved one. Write him or her a love poem. It costs nothing but a little time and thought, and it will last much longer than dinner, chocolates or roses. Here are five easy tips for writing a love poem.

1. Choose the tone. Your tone depends on how you feel about the person, and also the feelings you want to inspire with the poem. Will your poem be lighthearted and funny, sweet and nostalgic, or deep and serious? The tone of your poem will help to inspire the form and the words for it. 

2. Choose the form. Rhymes or free verse? Sonnet or haiku? Your tone can help you to choose the form, but there are no rules for matching the right tone to the right form! You may decide to write a serious rhyme or a hilarious haiku. 

3. Use common literary devices. Draw comparisons using metaphors ("my love is...") and similes ("my love is like...) Consider all of your five senses (touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell,) and look at nature or your everyday surroundings for inspiration. Is your love wild like a storm or delicate like hummingbirds? Sweeter than strawberries or stronger than steel? 

4. Edit your poem. Most writers find that writing IS editing!

5. Be genuine, not perfect. Write from the heart, and the poem will emerge. Or as Keats wrote, "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," and that is all you need to know about writing poetry, as well!