Unique

It would be too obvious to compare you to a flower,

though to me you are as beautiful and sweet.

It would be too simple to compare you to a starry sky,

though you fill me with as much wonder.

It would be too ordinary to compare you to diamonds and gold,

though you outshine their value in my eyes.

It would be too light to compare you to the sun,

though your presence fills me with more warmth.

It would be too soulless to compare you to a love poem,

though you pull the strongest love from my heart.

It would be too unjust to compare you to anything I know,

though to me you are as glorious and unique as any creation.

The only comparison acceptable to me is to compare you…

to you.

by M. Perron (unknown date)

Notes: I’m really not sure when I wrote this poem. I have notes and different versions in several notebooks from between 1988 & 2000. I was reading a lot of love poems during this period and had a recurring love affair with Shakespeare’s Sonnets … And, NO, I am not suggesting any comparison to Shakespeare. I was also inexplicably attracted to the sentimentalist poet, Rod McKuen at the time, and his words may have had more influence on this poem. Either way, it has several versions and this one is my favourite. 

I’m not sure it’s about any one person, and I probably was carelessly using it to woo the occasional girl. Hey, don’t judge me, that was long before I met my wife! AND No, I didn’t use it on her. I actually forgot about it and only recently found it for this feature on my creative writings.

It’s a beautifully idealized sentiment on love itself. I’m obviously not alone in enjoying it, as a version of this one won me a poetry prize and was published in “An Ever growing Wonder” and is currently housed in a collection of poems at The International Library of Poetry.