Writer's block- the enemy of anyone who ever put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboards). If you find yourself struggling with how to fill that expansive blank space, try one or all of the following creative exercises designed to step you out of the box and stretch your artistic muscles.

Write a letter
If you can't figure out what it is you want to say, try taking a more direct approach. Audience, as we know, is essential to every poem. The audience is the person or group of people for whom you are writing this poem (i.e. your best friend, your parents, teachers, women, all of humankind, etc.). Yet it's surprising how many beginning poets tend to forget this step, and write with no audience in mind. A strong poem has a strong voice, and speaks directly to the intended audience. So choose a person or group of people who you feel a connection with, or who trigger deep emotions within you, and write a letter to them. You can start in prose form, and later transform it into verse. Maybe the letter will turn into a poem, or maybe it will inspire a related poem. Either way, you're writing.

Alternative: To take a more humorous approach, choose an object, rather than a person, to address your letter to. Write to your car keys and ask them to curb their free spirit and stick around for a while. Write to the apple pie in the fridge, praising its deliciousness and bemoaning the brief time it has with you. Be creative and, more importantly, have fun.

Change your voice
Now you will practice writing a poem written by someone else. The point of this exercise is to get away from yourself for a while, and to gain some new perspectives. Choose a poet, a historical figure, and a celebrity. Now, you will write a poem (one for each) as though that person were writing it themselves. You're not writing to them, as with the letter above. You are writing as them. What is important to them? What type of poetry style would they choose to write in? What emotions would they put forward? Would they talk specifically about themselves or their lives, or would they focus on grander universal themes? Is their public face the same as their private face? What about them does no one else know? Write your poem, and then show it to a poet or writer friend and ask their opinion. Do they think your adopted voice sounds authentic? What would they change or have done differently? Friendly debate is a great way to fan the creative flames.

To be or not to be
Write out the following list:
I am
You are
He is
She is
It is
We are
They are
Now, fill in the rest of the sentences. The key here is the imagination. Sure, you may be Sarah Johnson from Connecticut. But in this poem, you may also be a hawk in the sky, or sea foam on top of the waves, or a joyful laugh, or the last one standing in the dodgeball tournament you entered at age ten. Experiment with the senses, with colors, mixing and matching objects and adjectives. A great example is the poem "Litany" by Billy Collins It begins “You are the bread and the knife,” and later makes such claims as “I am the sound of rain on the roof” and “I am also the moon in the trees.” This exercise is a good way to practice metaphor.