Although the Hardy inequality corresponding to one quadratic singularity,
with optimal constant, does not admit any extremal function, it is well known
that such a potential can be improved, in the sense that a positive term can be
added to the quadratic singularity without violating the inequality, and even a
whole asymptotic expansion can be build, with optimal constants for each term.
This phenomenon has not been much studied for other inequalities. Our purpose
is to prove that it also holds for the gaussian Poincar\'e inequality. The
method is based on a recursion formula, which allows to identify the optimal
constants in the asymptotic expansion, order by order. We also apply the same
strategy to a family of Hardy-Poincar\'e inequalities which interpolate between
Hardy and gaussian Poincar\'e inequalities