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The Easiest Poem You'll Ever Write: On Love
How to Write a Love Poem that's Entirely Original and Unique
Holly Lyn Walrath
February 06, 2026
“You have captivated me, let me stand tremblingly before you.”
For millennia, the love poem has been the most popular form of poetry in existence. It predates most other forms of literature, as far back as the Song of Songs, Rumi, and Shakespeare. As soon as people figured out how to put pen to paper (or chisel to stone), they started writing about love.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records (and you know, scholars), the oldest love poem is often believed to be “The Love Song for Shu-Sin” (c. 2000 BCE). This over four-thousand-year-old Sumerian stone tablet records what is both ancient rite and love song—a recording of a ritual where the King (Shu-Sin) would make sweet sweet music with a priestess of Inanna, the Sumerian Goddess of love.
A lot of people have tried their hand at writing love poems, and most poets start out by writing the love poem. Yet the idea that love poems are in some way cringeworthy is a prevailing concept that prevents writers from trying this age-old form. After all, how do you say anything new on the age-old topic of love? And how do you write a love poem for someone you care about that isn’t cliche?
Here’s the truth from a part-time poet: The secret is in knowing the object of your desire.
That is the topic of my upcoming workshop in-person at Merge Art Studio in Houston, Texas.
Sip + Create: Writing the Love Poem
DATE: Saturday, February 14th
TIME: 6:00PM - 8:00PM
LOCATION: Merge Art Studio, 2000 Nance St. Studio B-126
A themed art night for creatives.
Show the one you love how much you care with the most personal gift possible: A custom Valentine featuring a love poem in your own words. Whether you're celebrating a partner, friend, or your own beautiful self, this event will help you find the words to tell someone how much you care. Featuring a make-your-own Valentine art experience and Valentine-themed drinks. Couples welcome!
Why should you try writing a love poem in this day and age? Well, beyond the fact that it’s fun to write about things you love (and you should always write what you love), the truth is that we live in a world of diminishing authenticity. If you’re worried you might not be able to write an original poem, let me clue you into a little secret: Originality is not perfection.
I have a theory I’ve explained to my spouse far more times than he’d like to count, and it’s that the world is too interested in aesthetic these days. Not to sound like Ye Olde Ranter, but social media has perpetuated the idea that all things must be pretty and Instagrammable.
Let me give you an example. My spouse and I often like to spend a night in town to see a show. We used to stay at a crappy motel that was just enough off the beaten path from downtown to be Uber-able, but also hip and fun. This place had strong margaritas, unfancy tacos, and a 1960s-style motor-inn pool filled with beautiful people and loud hip-hop music blasting from the bar. The rooms were anything but fancy, but every time we stayed there, we had a blast—and it became a routine romantic getaway spot for us.
Of course, in the way of capitalism, it got bought out and quickly went sideways. All the fun and originality were squeezed out of it in favor of a bland beige color scheme, watered-down drinks, and a million add-on fees. What made it unique was squashed.
When my spouse and I were first dating, we often spent our time at the dollar movie, the local Pizza Hut with its 90s selection on the Juke Box, or simply hanging out at a park with a picnic. It’s these memories that stick with me. They are particular to us, and they will someday probably form a poem that’s an ode to all things cheap and not-shiny, to the simple attractions in life, to the person who I loved being with even when we couldn’t afford the aesthetic.
It might seem strange to write a love poem that’s part ode to the crappy motel, but to my spouse, it’s a little secret message. I miss that time, I remember the fun we had, even when we couldn’t afford to do something fancy. These days, we can afford to stay at nicer places. This last weekend, we hit up a local Houston speakeasy with a beautiful, meticulous garden. And while the drinks were nice and the ambiance nicer, it didn’t quite have that special vibe.
Of course, someone else might feel entirely differently based on their experiences, the memories, and weird little moments that make up a relationship: That is the stuff of poetry.
Things that feel fresh and authentic are often also rough around the edges. If we put aside the goal of writing something just right and instead focus on writing something that would please the person we are writing for, then it gets a lot easier.
In the end, you might achieve both originality and imperfect perfection: A poem that feels perfect for the person you love.
To that end, here’s a simple writing prompt to help you write a love poem to someone you love.
Writing the Love Poem: Know the Object of Your Affections
Whether you’re writing a poem to a lover, friend, or family member, the key is to focus on centering that person in your poem. Consider their interests, hobbies, weird little quirks, and what makes them special to you.
Intimacy is hard to quantify. Relationships are made up of a thousand little shared moments specific to the person you’re with. Make your love poem a private shared world between two people with a history.
Think about a specific memory you shared with this person. Write a few lines about that memory, or if you get stuck, start with “I remember the time…”
Brainstorm three words that describe the person. Are they funny? Kind? Confident? Shy? Get abstract: What color describes the person you love? If they were an animal, what kind would they be?
What is the person you love’s biggest fear? If you could take away one pain they have, what would it be?
What do you wish you could ask the person you love? What is one thing you want them to know if you died tomorrow?
Don’t worry about your poem being too cliche or sappy. The point of a love poem when it’s written for someone else is to connect with that person. They’ll love it simply because you took the time to write it. Everyone wants to feel loved, especially by those who most matter to them.
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Upcoming Workshops from Your Host with the Most Writing Prompts, Holly Lyn Walrath
 Sip + Create: Writing the Love Poem Show the one you love how much you care with the most personal gift possible: A custom Valentine featuring a love poem in your own words. Whether you're celebrating a partner, friend, or your own beautiful self, this event will help you find the words to tell someone how much you care. Featuring a make-your-own Valentine art experience and Valentine-themed drinks. Couples welcome!  The Art of Ekphrasis: Writing with Visual Art  Sip + Create: Junk Journaling Junk journaling is the playful, easy art of transforming everyday paper scraps and forgotten ephemera into a meaningful, visual record of your life. In this hands-on workshop, we’ll celebrate imperfection, curiosity, and creativity by giving new purpose to materials that might otherwise be tossed away. Receipts, catalogues, magazines, napkins, seed packets, book pages, postage stamps, junk mail, greeting cards, scraps of lace, packaging, old wallpaper—if it feels like junk to you, it’s exactly what we want to work with.  30 Stories in 30 Days This generative workshop is chock full of 30 writing prompts for short story writers. Whether you write micro fiction, flash fiction, or short stories, these 30 prompts are meant to inspire and support you in this unique writing challenge. You've heard of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month), where poets write 30 poems in 30 days, and you've probably heard of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), where writers try to write a novel in a month. Now, you can do the same with short stories. Whether you're writing to a specific theme, assembling stories for a collection, or want to try writing a series of connected stories, this workshop will explore new contemporary structures like The Tryptich or The Wikipedia Entry.  Sip + Create Van Gogh's Sunflowers |  30 Genres in 30 Days Get ready to discover the magic of different genres in this fun and interactive 30-day workshop tailored for short story writers. Whether you’re into mystery, romance, horror, or science fiction, this workshop will help you grasp the unique elements and essentials of each genre.  Revisioning Your Poems  Sip + Create: National Poetry Month Blackout Poetry In celebration of National Poetry Month, learn how to create your own blackout poetry. Play with words and art by erasing words on the page to form a poem. Explore the history of blackout poetry and learn how it defies genre, questions texts and sources, and provides ample play room for writers looking for inspiration.  Queer Poetics This workshop is an intersectional primer on LGBTQIA+ writers throughout the history of poetry. We’ll explore poets like Walt Whitman, Adrienne Rich, Allen Ginsberg, and Audre Lorde, but also the contemporary queer poets who have catapulted into the mainstream, like Jericho Brown and Danez Smith. We’ll write poems alongside and inspired by the voices of queer poetics. This class is meant both for writers who want to explore their queerness and for writers who want to learn more about the history of queer poetry.  Sip + Create Pride Party  Grow with Van Gogh: A 70-in-70 Challenge for Creatives Secluded in a small village outside of Paris, the famous impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh spent the final 70 days of his life doing what he loved: painting every day. This remarkable period and astonishing burst of creativity inspires this unique workshop. Grow with Van Gogh is a 70-day challenge for writers, artists, and all creatives looking to generate new work and push their boundaries. |
Self-Paced Workshops (Sign Up Anytime!)
 Self-Paced Course: 30 Poems In 30 Days  Self-Paced Course: Journaling for Poets |  Self-Paced Course: Queer Poetics  Self-Paced Course: Writing Resistance Through Erasure, Found Text & Visual Poetry |
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