so many love poems keep appearing in the blogs. Love poems are some of the hardest poems to write, or so claimed W. H. Auden. Here are a few classics that have inspired poets and lovers over the years:

• The Passionate Shepherd to His Love by Christopher Marlowe
• The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd by Sir Walter Ralegh
• somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond by e. e. cummings
• Let me not to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare
• The Definition of Love by Andrew Marvell

You can start these 15 Poems immediately. Besides being challenging and fun to do, they can lead to some strong poems.

For best results, paste the activity into your word processor, or print out a hard copy. Then write quickly and freely, trusting your imagination, hunches, gut feelings. When you finish, read the poem. When you're ready, share the poem with a partner or in a small group.

As you work with these approaches and techniques, you'll begin to sense how you can slice, dice, and blend them together in poems you make from scratch.