WHEN LOVE DEFIES WORDS ... ... CALL KING, A ROMANTIC POET-FOR-HIRE.

Byline: Cortney Fielding Staff Writer

For Valentine's Day today, a typically guarded auto body specialist named Noah Dixon will present his wife, Suzy, with a poem revealing his innermost thoughts. The poem will convey Noah's pride watching Suzy care for the couple's three children and reflect on a recent trip to Hawaii.

The sentiments will be all Dixon's. But the words will come from a man he met with for just 20 minutes at a Denny's.

North Hollywood resident King James Edmonds, 47, is a poet-for-hire. He writes love poems for the tongue-tied, the writer's-blocked, and those who appreciate a professional's touch. For $100, he promises each client a one-of-a-kind, individually tailored piece of work, delivered within two weeks in a silver frame.

All he requires from the client is a short face-to-face meeting or phone conversation. ``As they talk about their loved one, I create the poem in my mind,'' he said.

Edmonds truly belongs in another time - a slower, more romantic era when men threw their coats on top of puddles for ladies to walk across and poetry was more than something to slap on greeting cards.

He does most things slower than the average person. He speaks slowly, he even moves that way - like he's thinking about every movement. A former jazz radio disc jockey from New York City, Edmonds has a soothing voice that comes in handy when trying to get his clients to think like a romantic. He likes to say he sings like Barry White, but he looks more like Issac Hayes with hair. He can have an intense presence. The 6-foot-1, solidly built man who changed his name to King as a tribute to his mother more than 10 years ago looks deeply into his clients' eyes as he asks them about the details of their love lives.

``That's where I see the poem, in their eyes,'' he said.

His life as a professional poet began by accident five years ago, when a good friend, Gary Freeman, told Edmonds he was out of ideas for his future wife's Valentine's Day gift. ``He did the trip to Cancun, he did the roses, and I just said, I could write a poem.''

He interviewed Freeman for about five minutes before getting to work. ``Forever Gary and Trice'' was a huge success. It began, ``If I was a poet and words spoke free, I could truly say, there is no one else for me.''

Freeman was amazed with the details Edmonds put in the poem. ``It's like he experienced the relationship I was going through,'' he said.

Both agreed he had a gift to share with the public.

Edmonds approached his business the same way he approaches life. With extreme patience, he began building client base both from word of mouth and by handing out fliers on the street. In 2004, he started www.poetsrain.com to promote his work. He estimates he's now written about 35 poems.

When not writing, he works part time as a sales associate at Incolay, a company that does reproductions of classical works of art. This year, the company will print one of his poems, ``Beautiful,'' on Incolay stone, making it available both in its gift catalog and to retailers.

Edmonds doesn't have a fancy studio, so he meets with clients wherever he can. His two latest meetings took place at an old Hollywood-theme Denny's in Sherman Oaks, where in a tucked-away booth lined with black and white photos of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, Edmonds probed two lovestruck husbands for information about their relationships.

Edmonds asks each client the same questions, so he can understand what they love about their significant others, get descriptions of romantic moments and gauge their hopes for the future. He also likes to turn the tables on his clients, asking what their partner would say they love about them.

Both clients were tripped up by this question.

``Wow, hmm,'' new client Billy Seals said when asked the question at a recent interview. He thought hard before proceeding to tell Edmonds all about ``Billy-itis'' - the name his wife, Verjeania Sharp, has given to describe how she feels about him.

``This is gonna be some poem,'' he said when the interview ended.

Edmonds, who has never married, describes himself as the ultimate romantic at heart. He admits it's a bit ironic that the man who brings couples closer together has never had a relationship last longer than seven years.

``If you can't live through your own romance, you can live vicariously though others' romance,'' he said.

Edmonds said his biggest goal is to have his poems touch the people who receive them, and that clients have been consistently amazed by the detail that comes through in his writing after just one short meeting.

``It was really an interesting experience; my wife loved it,'' said Dean Dena, who commissioned a poem from Edmonds last year for his wife's birthday. ``It was real personal - almost like I wrote it but with his flair for writing.''

Cortney Fielding, [phone]

cortney.fielding(at)dailynews.com

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(color) Looking for the right words for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day? King James Edmonds can write you a one-of-a-kind, tailored love poem for $100.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer