Writing a love poem for the one you love can seem like an impossible task when you've memories of struggling with English in school. But it needn't be.

Even if you remember the correct grammatical terms for verse and rhyme is not important here? Whilst that's great to know when you're studying literature, it might hold you back when you're starting out on your very own love poem.

Only two things are important here.

1. To think from the heart

2. To write from the heart

So how to start?

1. First of all get yourself some paper and a pen and block off a bit of time when you won't be undisturbed. If you want to play some music fine, but let it be inspiring stuff, rather than loud and aggressive. I've often found that setting aside a particular block of time, (say ½ hour) helps.

2. Sit down quietly, close your eyes and remember all the good things about your loved one. Try to focus on three main areas for the moment (you can choose others if you like). Think about a) How you felt when you first saw them. When and where did you meet them, what was said,and what were they wearing? b) How it felt when you knew you were in love with them. When was the moment? How did you know? How did you feel and how did you tell them about it? c) How you feel now that you're with them. How do you look forward to the future together? What plans do you have? How do you compare your life now with your partner to times before, without them? What dreams do you share?

3. Now start to write your thought down onto paper. This is called prose. Prose is more every day speech than poetry, and it just describes your thoughts and the facts (for a fuller description see www.wikipedia.com). You could think of prose as just an outpouring of your feelings onto paper. Don't hold back. Just go for it. It can all be edited later. For now, just spill it out and get it down.

4. When you feel that you've written enough (you decide how much that is), it's time to review it. A review is your own chance to really look back at what you've put down on paper.

Are there parts you don't like or areas you want to write more about? Perhaps there are sections, words or sentences that you really don't want in there? Be honest with yourself. No-one's looking at it at this stage, and you're not trying to rival Shakespeare. It's more important that these are your honest feelings, even if you might ‘flounce them up', poetically, later on.

6. Most ‘love poem' advice now recommends that you replace common nouns with proper nouns. It's not too complicated. It means Instead of saying ‘flower' - which is pretty general, be more specific and choose a type of flower - say ‘Rose' for example. Make sure your choice of flower begins with a Capital Letter.

7. The next stage is to put a 'strong' verb in place of a 'weak' one. Don't fret too much about this. Instinct should tell you if it sounds right. For a really detailed explanation of our two English types of nouns (no – I didn't know that either) take a look at the www.bbb.co.uk website.

8. And finally, the general advice is to bring all these three memories together with a metaphor. Remember them? When you use as… like. It's a comparison. Again Google comes up with a good explanation. This page also has come good poetry metaphors to get your started.

9. The last stage is to re-read your prose – either out loud, or in your head, making note of all those conscious thoughts you have about it. You can make notes on the paper at this stage or just ‘feel' what it says to you. This process breaks up the prose into poetry.

10. Do you want to give your poem a title. You can either pick something from what you've written or write something general such as ‘What you mean to me'.

11. When that's done decide if you want to hand write your poem on a blank card or whether you'd prefer to type it on the computer, and print it. With a bit of placement planning, you can fold and insert your print-off into your card).

Remember that it's love poem. The person you've written it for will be more touched by the effort you've gone to than any worries you might have over your 'English'. For more inspiration take a look at some of the classic love poems out there.