Little words

Try writing poems that don't rhyme! It worked wonders for me, my writing has never been the same since I started writing free verse. Or, if you're too attached to the rhyming, try doing it unconventionally. Words in poetry don't have to rhyme perfectly, look more at the vowel sounds. Together/forever is a good example of this, some from my own writing are pocket/call it, on/song, pain/shame, alone/home, shelter/felt it, me/breathe... etc. etc. you get the point. Hope this helps!

If you feel like your vocabulary isn't broad enough, you can try this writing exercise. What I do is flip through either a dictionary or a thesaurus and pick a group of words. Then I write a poem using the entire list of words.

endeavor also rhymes with together... and I sometimes use words that end with "ther"... like brother... or if those kinds of words don't work... I try one's that end in "er"... such as letter... etc, etc... They aren't perfect... but it's better than forcing a word that doesn't go with the poem and takes away from the flow...

For rhyming, I use:

http://www.rhymer.com
http://www.rhymezone.com

The second one can also give you Synonyms (forgive me if it's spelled incorrectly) and Antonyms and definitions... The first one will give you a broader list of rhymes... and the second will give you "perfect rhymes" When I can't find "Perfect rhymes" I usually go to the first one... but it's always great to look at both of them, because they usually have different words and it's nice to have a variety... :) Hope this helps!

And about the getting stuck in a middle of a poem... I do that all the time... I can start a poem well... but throughout the poem, I find myself straying from the main story at hand... so I try writing a story first... then forming it into a poem from there, so that it keeps the flow and it's easy to follow. Just an idea... Keep writing and I hope this helps.

~BJ~