Brainstorm ideas for your poem. Keep the central idea simple such as "love" or "family." Decide whether a rhyming or non-rhyming poem best expresses this idea.
Write lists of words that you associate with your central idea. Organize the words from the simplest to the most complex, then back to a simple concept.
Write words that rhyme with your word list. Choose words that either fit well with your central theme, or choose words that are the exact opposite. Both support the central idea of your poem. Rhyming dictionaries or websites help you brainstorm a wide variety of rhyming words.
Put the word list and the rhyming list together to form stanzas for your poem. Stanzas are two, three or more lines and are portions of a poem. Some poetry has long stanzas. Shakespeare, for example, uses long, 14-line stanzas in some of his sonnets. Try your poem in a variety of ways to see which is most satisfying for you.
Print your poem as word art. While working on a computer might be helpful during the re-writing period, you don't have to print your poem from the computer. Instead, try hand printing your poem on decorative or homemade paper that doesn't work in the standard computer printer. Consider how to shape your poem on the paper. You can write your poem in block printing with pictures separating each couplet. Or, try writing your poem in a spiral. Start at the outside of the paper and write the poem as your turn the paper, leading the reader to a specific central image. Separate each line with a comma for clarity.