How can I practice being more poetic/lush/vivid when writing?

I have always admired words. Ever since I learned to read I got everything I could lay my hands on, big books and small books, for children and for adults. And though sometimes I had no clue what I was reading, I have always loved the way words sounded together, smoothly flowing, sort of like a personal symphony in your mind. I was a very intuitive and solitary child; I also loved to write, just for my own entertainment, even though I laugh at the things I wrote then. But laugh as I do, I am still in awe of how free I was in writing then. When I write now, I don't feel as if I'm searching deep enough for words. I feel as if I'm losing my freedom of expression, based on what society has drained me of as I grew and matured. What I mean to ask is, how can I let go and just enter that little world I was in, without outer disturbance again? How can I 'lose' myself again when writing? How can I be more poetic and vivid?