Choose a subject for your poem. Draw from personal experience such as the loss of a family member or friend, or a romantic breakup.
Write down a list of words that come to mind when you think about the chosen subject. Good examples include "empty," "alone," "forgotten" or "betrayed."
Look up each word in a thesaurus and write alternate words with similar meanings next to each word. Focus on words that are lyrical, mysterious or poetic-sounding, such as "abyss" or "solitary."
Experiment with combining different words on the list to evoke the ambience of your chosen subject. If you want your poem to have a message, weave the meaning into the poem in the way you arrange the words from the list. The words and phrases in the poem do not have to make complete sentences. For example, if you are describing a painful breakup you could arrange adjectives, nouns and verbs in a meaningful yet emotionally powerful way such as:
a betrayal of distance
creating this solitary abyss
darkness envelops me
pouring over our lost love