A poem and a song are not one and the same, but I believe you can find poetry in music. I’m starting with a poet I’m seeing on Wednesday but I will be focusing on music, and in particular songs to do with relationships. I’ll be picking out key lyrics that have spoken to me recently. I’m not going to explain their personal significant to myself, but hope you enjoy the poetry of the lyrics.
Buddy Wakefield
Giant Saint Everything
“I should have told you before talking in terms of forever that any given day wears me out, works me sour; that there are nights when the sky is so clear, I stand obnoxious underneath it, begging for stars to shoot me just so I can feel at home”
Emmy the Great
24
“Man on the screen he has done more in a minute
Than you have achieved in your whole entire life
When you finally realise i was the best thing you had in it
We’ll be closing up your eyelids on the bed on which you die”
Bright eyes & Neva Dinova
I Know You
“We made quite a pair in the morning
We both tend to traffic in dreams
Seeing it now from the outside
You kept all your dark ones for me”
Scroobius Pip
Broken promise
“From anyone who ever let you down and went missing
Lovers, parents, best friends, and siblings
Sometimes life conspires to make liars of good men”
Noah and the Whale
First Day of Spring
“But I’ll come back to you in a year or so
And I’ll rebuild, be ready to become
Oh the person, you believed in
Oh the person, that you used to love”
Destiny’s Child
Emotion
“But if you don’t come back
Come home to me, darling
Dont you know there’s nobody left in this world
to hold me tight”
Mumford and Sons
Little Lion Man
“Take all the courage you have left
Wasted on fixing all the problems
That you made in your own headBut it was not your fault but mine
And it was your heart on the line
I really fucked it up this time
Didn’t I, my dear?”
White Blank Page
“But tell me now, where was my fault
In loving you with my whole heart”
Slow Club
Giving up on Love
“We’ve been over and over,
this thing we call love.
And I’ve been thinking about what my friends would say,
if I were to give it up.Cause I’ve been tired and hopeful (I’ve been hurting inside)
For far too long now (too long now).
So I’m giving it up, giving up, giving up on love.
Giving up on love.”
Poet on page and stage. Creator of She Grrrowls. Facilitator. Writer. 
I feel the need to thank you, you’ve just put me onto the paths of a number of great musicians that I had no idea about. And I too look for poetry and prose in the lyrics of songs.
I’m glad I posted this now 🙂 I was wary about getting too personal so didn’t make any comments about the songs but they’ve been great to listen to recently and felt like sharing them in case other people found something beneficial so glad you’ve found some new music from it!
Completely agree. It was that live video of Emmy the Great that really stole my soul, so raw. I’m relatively new to the world of poetry, prose and spoken word but I’d known Scroobius Pip from his ‘A letter from God to Man’ track, I just had never realised the true genre of what I was hearing until recently. And Buddy Wakefield I actually only discovered yesterday by chance.
Do you have any suggestions for more artists/poets? I like things like Def Jam but I’m having trouble finding a UK based equivalent.
Yeah, I only saw Buddy Wakefield from a gig that was advertised but now I’ve decided to go to the gig I checked him out and really like his stuff! Hmmm, I’d assume you know Kate Tempest? I had poets Rosy Carrick and Catherine Woodward at an event I ran. I also worked at Penned in the Margins during an internship and the work they publish is often connected with live lit stuff too. I also recently discovered Shajila Patel who is a Kenyan poet. Hmm… Hollie McNish, Jess Green, John Berkavich, Ross Sutherland, Hannah Walker… there’s so many! I could go on forever.