Greetings in verse and prose
A custom poem is written about one specific person: with their name, their habits and the stories only their own people know. You tell us the facts, and we send back a greeting in verse or prose that you can read at the table, write in a card or send in a message. It is written by an author, not by a neural network.
01 What you get
A custom poem is written after a conversation about the person, not picked from a ready-made collection. You send a few facts, explain the occasion and the tone, and we return a poem or a piece of prose that doesn't appear in any greeting card book.
What you receive is a Google Docs file: the text itself and, if needed, two or three alternative openings or endings. You can read it aloud, print it on a card, put it into a video greeting or send it as a message. We don't record audio or compose music, but the finished text is easy to hand to a performer or a host who will read it.
People who search for “personalized poem,” “custom poem for birthday” or “personalized greeting” usually want exactly this: words in which the person recognizes themselves. It also answers the search for a birthday message “in my own words”: your words, but put together so that you won't be embarrassed to read them out.
02 Samples
Both texts are samples, and the people they are addressed to don't exist. We invented a sister, Olivia, who is turning thirty-five, and a department head marking ten years with the company. In a real order, every detail is yours.
Your boots are by the door once more.
“The last climb,” you say. You said that before.
You'll chase the sunrise up a hill,
and still be home by supper. Still.
May this year bring you peaks to climb
and views that stop you every time,
then home, where all your friends will stay
and pancakes scent the end of day.
Mr. Hale, ten years ago you took over a department where nobody had time. Since then “whose fault is it” has dropped out of our vocabulary and “what do you suggest” has taken its place. We're not sure that's what you were aiming for, but it is how the whole floor works now.
Happy ten years. May there be more decisions than meetings, and may this year's vacation last longer than the quarter-end close.
for a card from the department03 From facts to a poem
An author doesn't invent the person. The author looks in the facts you provide for the one that can become an image. Below are the facts about the invented Olivia and the lines that came out of them.
She goes hiking all the time and says every trip is the last one.
Your boots are by the door once more. “The last climb,” you say. You said that before.
why: a repeated little thing is what a reader recognizes fastest. One “last time” is enough to make someone smile before the line ends.
She makes pancakes from her grandmother's recipe, and everyone asks for seconds.
Then home, where all your friends will stay and pancakes scent the end of day.
why: we don't retell the recipe or the second helping. We keep the smell that gathers a family around the table.
Wishing you joy, health, love and happiness throughout the whole year ahead.
May this year bring you peaks to climb and views that stop you every time.
why: the first one could be sent to anybody. The second is addressed to one person, and that's why people read it aloud more willingly.
04 Occasions
The occasion decides who will hear the text and how long they'll listen. A poem for an anniversary dinner with forty guests and a line in a card for a friend are written differently, even if they tell the same story.
For people serving in the armed forces and their families, we write with restraint: no pathos, and specific facts about the person instead of general words about heroism. If the occasion is a difficult one, tell us at the start, and we'll agree on the tone before we write.
05 Tone
The same fact can be told in different ways, and who it's for decides what comes out. This is how we usually choose the tone.
| For whom | Tone | What we avoid | Form |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mom, dad | Warm, with a childhood detail | Pathos and grand words | verse |
| A colleague | Light, with a joke from the team | Anything personal or about family | prose |
| A manager | Restrained, with a specific thank-you | Familiarity and flattery | prose |
| A friend | With an inside joke | Formal phrases | verse or prose |
| A child | Simple, with their name and a rhyme | Difficult words | short verse |
Choose verse when the text will be read aloud, when the person loves poetry, or when the occasion is solemn. Prose is better for a card, a thank-you, a greeting from a team, and for people who find poems affected. Prose holds more facts; verse is better at touching people.
06 Questionnaire
The more living detail you give, the fewer general words end up in the poem. You don't have to write well or beautifully. Just say how it is.
The name, how people call them at home, your relationship. The occasion and the date.
What they live for, what they love, what they never have enough time for. Hobbies, job, favorite phrases.
An incident you both remember. The central image of the text often comes from it.
Funny or touching, verse or prose, how many minutes it will be read for. Where it will be heard: at the table, in a card, in a video.
Topics best avoided: illness, divorce, age. This matters more than any wish, because it protects the person from an awkward moment.
07 How to order
You can order a birthday, anniversary or wedding greeting in one evening. Everything happens in writing, and calls are optional.
The occasion, the date, who it's for and in what tone. Add your answers to the questionnaire above, even in free form.
→ the source facts
Within a working day we name the price and the turnaround, and ask two or three clarifying questions if something is missing.
→ price and deadline
One to two days. An editor checks the rhythm, the stress and the facts. If needed, we add alternative openings or endings.
→ the finished text
A Google Docs file: you can read it from the screen, print it, or copy it into a card or a message.
→ a text for the occasion
Besides birthdays and anniversaries, this year's requests include holiday verses for family and company parties, wedding anniversary greetings, words of thanks to nurses and volunteers, and letters to people who are far from home. For the last group we avoid stock nostalgia and use ordinary household details that bring home to mind.
08 Principle
Poems are written by an author. Greetings generated by a neural network come out fast but look the same: correct rhymes, impersonal words and not one detail that only you know. So we don't hand over machine-generated text as authored copy.
We also don't sell ready-made texts and don't rewrite other people's poems. Your greeting is written from scratch for your story, and nobody else gets the same one. We don't make music, songs or voice recordings: we write the text.
09 Price
One text costs from $90 and takes 1 to 2 days. Two greetings, for example one from a mother and one from a sister for the same milestone birthday, come to $180. As a guide to length: a poem runs 12 to 24 lines, and prose up to one page. Anything longer or more complex we agree in advance.
| Service | What's included | Turnaround | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Greetings and poems | Text built on your facts about the person, original and free of templates | 1–2 days | from $90 / piece |
| Slogans and taglines | Brief, 10 options, rationale, one refinement round | 5–7 days | from $900 / project |
| Social media copy | Post copy, hook, call to action, hashtags if needed | from 3 posts a day | from $60 / post |
| Video scripts | Concept, timed script, voice-over text | 3–4 days | from $350 / script |
| Copywriting in other languages | Copy, review by a language editor | 4–5 days | from $0.22 / word |
On freelance marketplaces you can order a poem for much less. But it is usually a template with your name dropped in. At our price, an author asks you about the person and writes from scratch, and an editor checks rhythm, stress and facts, so that the poem can be read aloud without stumbling and no detail is wrong. When a milestone birthday poem is read in front of forty guests, that is the difference between a touching moment and an awkward one.
10 Questions
The price is from $90 / piece. That is one text built on your facts, in verse or prose. A more complex job, such as a series of several texts, we price after you describe it.
One to two days. If the celebration is tomorrow, say so: we reply within a working day and tell you whether we can make it.
The name, your relationship, the occasion, three to five facts and one story. The questionnaire is above on this page. You don't need whole paragraphs, a few sentences will do.
Yes. For colleagues, managers and cards, prose is often more suitable than verse. Tell us the form you want or ask us to suggest one.
Yes, and for christenings, graduations, retirement parties, New Year and any other occasion. The occasion only changes the tone.
Usually 12 to 24 lines, so that it can be read in about a minute. We agree a shorter or longer poem to suit the occasion.
Yes. If a detail doesn't ring true, tell us what exactly is off and we'll refine the text. We name the number of revisions for your order before work starts.
No, we write the text. You can voice it or put it into a video yourself, or pass it to a performer.
English and Ukrainian are written from scratch, adapted to the reader's language. If you need English, see copywriting in other languages.
No. Every poem is written for the person in your account, not taken from ready-made collections, so there will be no repeats.
Yes. The work is remote, and where you live makes no difference. We discuss everything by email or in a messenger, and the text arrives in Google Docs. We work from Ukraine, so we answer within a working day.
11 Related
Roholeva is a copywriting, promotion and web development studio. For businesses we write social media posts and emails, including holiday ones, in the same tone.
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