Process: Better Than This

This is a very simple AABB poem. I actually wrote it a few years ago, after my ex and I broke up. Every time I tried to start dating again, I felt guilty. So I wrote this to try to inspire me that my feelings for her don’t mean I can’t be happy with someone else.

The syllable count is a little odd. 10-11-13-9. That’s because when I wrote it, it sounded like a song. There are a few breaks when I say it in my head. Let me try to show you…

All my grey-days won’t change-shades won’t change-hue (all 1 syllable words, with a kind of ba da-dum in sequence)
As-long as you’re-here and as-long as you’re-you (same thing, but starts with a ba-dum instead of a floating ba)
Even-now, I don’t love-you, any-less than I did (using “even” and “any” this is more of a ba-da-dum ba da da-dum, though I slow down for “I did”, making each syllable distinct)
But I deserve better. Than this. (one one, two two, hard pause, one one)

I’m obviously not a musician.

Speaking of… do other people turn poems into songs? I sometimes love looking up lyrics to a song I don’t know, then singing it with my own melody. Then I listen to the song and see if my version is any better. (It never is.)