This is how I go about writing. Maybe you'll find something here to help you too!

Now start playing with these ideas. How could doing them bring you into contact with flowers? Imagine... walking your dog through a field full of sunflowers. You could describe the warmth of the day, the glorious sun, the tallness of the flowers making you feel small, the bright yellow dazzling your eyes, your dog disappearing between the stems; your dog being hot but happy, sitting down and letting the sunflowers hide you both from the world, feeling wonderful and enjoying the freedom of the summer holidays...

1  Write about things that excite you

It's hard to write about something you find dull and boring. And if you force yourself to write it, all that dull feeling will go into your writing, so anyone who reads it will find it dull too! So I always write about things I find exciting and interesting.

This can be difficult if you're in school, of course. Often you are told what to write - like 'a poem about flowers' - and you might have no interest in flowers at all. The secret here is to find something that is about YOU but has flowers in it. So ask yourself: what do I like doing most?  Make a list. You might write:

• Walking my dog
• Swimming

Swimming... Imagine you are swimming in a warm tropical pool that has gorgeous pond lilies at its edges. Enormous blooms, white and waxy as candles. Huge glossy leaves, big enough to sit on or dive off. An amazing perfume in the hot air. Shimmering dragonflies flying among them, landing on the lily pads.

Still not getting excited? Then ask yourself: what would I find exciting to write about? 
What do I like reading?

Answer: ghost stories.

Okay. So how about writing a poem about the spooky house on the edge of town. Everyone says it's haunted. They say that sometimes, the garden blooms in the middle of the night but the flowers disappear by morning. So one night you go, around midnight. You open the gate, step into the garden... and the flowers start to bloom. Describe them! Black roses. White pansies that look like skulls. Dark red apples that fall from the skeletal trees, heavy with poison. 

Hey presto - a poem about flowers! And you've enjoyed writing it !

2  Go over it and over it and over it and over it...

I was leading a poetry workshop the other day, with teens. One girl wrote a whole poem, there and then, while everyone else was still thinking about what to write. It was a long poem, and it was a good poem. She clearly had a talent for writing poetry, and a poet's passion too. So I was amazed when she  gave it to me and said: 'I've finished.'

'Don't you want to take it home and polish it?' I said.

'No. It's finished,' she said, and she walked away.

I didn't call her back, but she hadn't finished. She had only just begun!