How to write a poem

You do not need a gift to write a poem. You need something you have actually noticed, a few plain words, and the patience to cut. This guide is for students who have been asked to write a poem for the school magazine, for parents helping a child, and for anyone who wants to write four honest lines for a birthday card.

Start with one small, real thing

Beginners choose big subjects such as love, nature or life, and end up with big empty words. Choose something small that you can see: your mother's rolling pin, the neem tree outside the classroom, the last bench, your grandfather's spectacles. The small thing will carry the big feeling for you. A poem about a father's old cycle is a poem about love without ever using the word.

Five steps to a first poem

Look. Spend two minutes with your subject, or with your memory of it. Write down five things you notice: a colour, a sound, a smell, something it does, something people say about it.
Choose three. Keep the three most particular details. "It is old" is general. "The seat is patched with a rubber tube" is particular.
Write it as plain sentences. Do not think about rhyme yet. Say what you saw.
Break the lines. Put each thought on its own line. Read it aloud and move the breaks to where your voice pauses.
End with a turn. The last line should add something: a feeling, a surprise, a wish. Not a summary.

A worked example

Subject: grandmother's spectacles. Details noticed: they hang on a string; one arm is mended with thread; she wears them to read the newspaper and to find them.

Dadi's spectacles hang on a string, One arm tied up with thread. She wears them for the morning news And props them on her head. She looks for them at half past ten In every drawer and shelf. I never tell her where they are. She finds them, by herself.

Eight lines, one object, and a grandmother the reader can see.

Rhyme: useful, not compulsory

Rhyme makes a poem easy to remember, which is why children's poems and recitation pieces use it. The simplest pattern rhymes the second and fourth lines of each four line stanza, as in the example above: thread and head, shelf and herself. The first and third lines are left free, which keeps the poem from sounding forced.

Never choose a word only because it rhymes. If "moon" drags in "spoon" for no reason, change the first word.
Near rhymes, such as "home" and "alone", are perfectly good.
A poem with no rhyme at all is called free verse. It needs strong pictures and careful line breaks to work.

Rhythm: count the beats

Read your lines aloud and tap the table on each strong beat. If one line has four taps and the next has seven, the reader will stumble. Make matching lines carry about the same number of beats. You do not need to know the technical names. Your ear is enough, and tapping never lies.

Show, do not tell

Telling	Showing
My mother works very hard.	Her hands smell of haldi and soap at midnight.
The rain was beautiful.	The first drops raised small puffs of dust.
I miss my friend.	I still save you the window seat.
My teacher is kind.	She pretended not to see me counting on my fingers.

Easy forms to try

Acrostic: write a name down the page, one letter per line, and begin each line with that letter. Good for cards.
Four line verse: one stanza, second and fourth lines rhyming. Enough for any birthday.
List poem: "Things my grandfather keeps in his pocket", one thing per line, with the surprising one last.
Haiku: three short lines about one moment in nature.

These and other forms are explained in Kinds of poems, with examples.

Writing in Hindi or Punjabi

Write in the language you think in. A poem about your Bebe will come more easily in Punjabi, and one about your school friends may come in a mix of Hindi and English, which is how you speak. Hindi and Punjabi rhyme easily because so many words end in the same sounds, so take extra care that the rhyme is not doing all the work. Read our own Hindi and Punjabi poems to see how short lines and everyday words carry feeling.

Edit: the real work

Cut the first line. Poems often begin one line too early.
Cut every "very", "really" and "so".
Replace general words (nice, beautiful, sad) with what you actually saw.
Read it aloud to one person. Where they look puzzled, fix it.
Leave it for a day and read it again.

It must be your own

For a school magazine or a competition, the poem must be your own work. Reading other poems for ideas is how every poet learns. Copying lines is not. If you use a line from another poet, put it in quotation marks and give the name. Lines from songs and films belong to their writers and should not be passed off as yours. When your poem is ready, our guide on how to recite a poem will help you say it well.