Inside: Your guide to how to write friendship poems. Wanting to get into writing for yourself instead of always reading someone else’s words?
Poetry is such a beautiful craft because it’s not only writing down your thoughts like a journal, but doing so in a way that it relates and resonates with people who read your words. Sometimes reading a journal entry could do the trick, or a letter, but usually having the words crafted beautifully in prose and style makes it all a little different. It hits harder.
There’s a reason there are so many love songs, expressing your thoughts and words through craft just does something to people. It means a lot to receive a friendship poem from my friends, knowing that when they read it, it made them think of me and our memories and how we interact with each other and have so much fun. But reading words that come from their own mind about me specifically has something so special to it, knowing they especially think those things about me.
So if you’re wanting to start telling people how much they mean to you in your own words, this is going to be your guide to writing friendship poems and telling your people how much they mean to you in your own words. Reading from others will never disappoint, but this is going to elevate your projects and your friendships. Not to mention it’s always really cool to learn a new skill and sharpen your craft.
Have fun with this! It’s all about expression and your own words and feelings and no one can tell you they aren’t accurate or aren’t good. Enjoy this process. Let’s get into it.
Before You Start
Before you start writing, just know that this all about you and what you want to say. While there are some specific styles of poetry, there isn’t a technical rule that makes something a poem or a proper way of doing it. You can write to a specific cadence or make it flow in a particular style, but you don’t have to.
Write what flows and go from there.
Also know that the creative process is very different for everyone. This is how I find writing poetry the most productive, but instead of breaking it down, some people just go for it and write as it comes. Again, write however you feel inspired!
Getting Started
Sometimes I really do just write what comes to mind and I usually end up loving it, but in the end it wound up a little off topic and irrelevant to what I was trying to say with the poem or song, so I need to take a few steps to make sure I stay on track.
First, I like to write down the overall message or goal, if I have one.
In terms of friendship poems, if I was writing to my friend to tell her how much I’m going to miss her when she moves, how I hope she is doing well in the middle of heartbreak, or how much I value our friendship, I want to make sure that the goal is clear so as I start to write out my thoughts, they all stick to the end goal and tell the same story.
It doesn’t have to be so uniform that every line is about the one topic, but it helps as you write to just make sure that as you veer into other concepts that it’s still getting to your main point.
I usually jot down a few sub points too, like maybe something specific I want to devote a stanza to or even a line I’ve already come up with and have stuck in my head. This kind of becomes an outline of sorts.
Writing a song already has an outline with the general structure of a song with a chorus, a bridge, and two verses. So poetry needs a little bit of structure for me to have some direction when I start writing.
Writing
This is where it’s all in your hands. If you have your main message behind the poem, your points you want to make sure you hit to make sure you fully relay your message to your friend, it’s time to start writing!
Writing poetry is a learned skill that becomes sharpened over time. As you study and read other poetry and as you begin to write your own more often, you start to learn the flow and the cadence. In most poetry, there’s isn’t specifics when it comes to syllables and such, unless you’re writing a haiku or something similar.
Write a few lines and just see how it flows. Get a little bit of a tempo going in your head and pull up some tools like RhymeZone to help you find words that flow well with your lines. (Tip: RhymeZone has a section called “near rhymes” that are words that sound good with the word you searched, but aren’t an exact rhyme. Sometimes this has a nicer flow to it.)
Re-Writing/Critiquing
Once you’ve written it, put it down. Come back to it an hour later or a day later and read it again. Does it hit the same? Do you like the word choices still? If not, time to revise!
Chance the word, change the whole line or the whole stanza if you need to. It’s all up to you to make this something you’re proud of and something that accurately tells your friends how much you love them.
This is all a part of the creative process.
You don’t need to be an expert poet to use your words to create a piece of poetry that tell your friends how much you value them, when you’re thinking of them, or whatever message you want to tell them. If you’re willing to put in the time to make this project great and sharpen this skill of yours, you’re going to produce something so beautiful and meaningful regardless.
Learning a new writing process is tedious, and you should be proud of yourself for doing it! Again, as with anything, it’s all about fun and committing yourself to the process. It’s easy when you get into the swing of it and you can start working on specific details at that point.
No mater what you write, your friends are going to love it and are going to love hearing your own words. It’s a precious gift to receive, especially if their love language is words of affirmation. Have fun making your friends’ day!
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