The Poetry Filter

May 27, 2024

AI doesn’t hesitate. It selects. It completes. It outputs.

But humans revise, contradict, hesitate — and sometimes delete the line that said too much. The best lyrics aren’t written in one pass. They’re shaped. Rewritten. Regretted. Returned to.

That’s what makes them feel alive.

The Tell-Tale Signs

When a lyric feels too perfect — too balanced, too polished, too polite — it might be passing through what I call the *poetry filter*. That’s the AI instinct to make everything technically sound, but emotionally flat.

It’s why some lyrics hit all the right notes, yet none of the right nerves.

You read it and think, “That’s nice,” but you don’t remember a word of it the next day.

“She walked away like the world owed her nothing.” — Human lyric

That line has tension. You don’t know exactly what happened — but you feel it. There’s implication. Mystery. A story underneath. AI doesn’t do that well. It doesn't do ambiguity. It doesn’t know what not to say.

Why Human Lyrics Matter

Human lyrics are built on contradiction. A verse can be angry. A chorus can be pleading. And the bridge can reveal something you didn’t want to admit. That’s not bad writing — that’s what makes it unforgettable.

AI avoids that kind of mess. It wants clarity, even when emotion isn’t clear. And that’s where it fails. Not because it lacks skill, but because it lacks confusion.

Let the Mess In

Real lyrics leave things unsaid. They spill over. They don’t always resolve.

Until AI can doubt itself — until it hesitates mid-sentence — it won’t write anything that breaks us open.