Stevie Nicks Wrote a Poem for Taylor Swift's New Album, The ...

As if 31 tracks and more lyrical burns than an emergency room waiting room on the Fourth of July wasn’t enough to work with, Taylor Swift’s new double album The Tortured Poets Department also features an original poem penned by none other than Stevie Nicks.

Physical copies of the album feature a poem by the Fleetwood Mac icon, which lacks a title apart from “A Poem By Stevie Nicks” and bears a handwritten date (Sept. 13, 8:50 p.m.) and dedication: “For T — and me…”

The poem, aptly for the subject matter of the album, is about heartbreak and the end of a relationship.

It reads:

Sept. 13, 8:50 p.m.

A poem by Stevie Nicks

He was in love with her Or at least she thought so She was broken hearted Maybe he was too Neither of them knew. She was way too hot to handle He was way too high to try He couldn’t even see her He wouldn’t open his eyes She was on her way to the stars He didn’t say goodbye

She looked back from her future And shed a few tears He looked into his past And actually felt fear. For both of them The answers — would never be Everclear Don’t ask questions now Do that later She brings joy He brings Shakespeare It’s almost a tragedy Says she Don’t endanger me Don’t endanger me.

He really can’t answer her He’s afraid of her He’s hiding from her And he knows — that he’s hurting her She tells the truth She writes about it She’s an informer He’s an x-lover There’s nothing there for her She’s already gone There’s nothing that can stop her

She was just flying Thru the clouds Where he saw her … She was just making her way — to the stars — When he lost her …

For T and me…

Nicks and Swift are no strangers: They’ve performed together, have vocally been fans of one another, and have been compared to one another—the latest comparison coming from Swift herself on the TTPD track “Clara Bow.”

The song is about that quintessential idea of “making it” and becoming the “It Girl.” (Bow, a silent film star, is considered to have pioneered the archetype.) “You look like Stevie Nicks / In ‘75, the hair and the lips / Crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshine, a full eclipse” one verse begins, with the final lines invoking Swift’s name, looking into a future where she’s just another icon of the past. “You look like Taylor Swift / In this light / We’re loving it. / You’ve got an edge she never did, / The future’s bright / …Dazzling.”

Nicks has also praised Swift through the years, and in October 2023 thanked her onstage for writing the Midnights track “You’re On Your Own, Kid,” invoking the song as an example of how she felt about bandmate Christine McVie, who died in 2022, and why she couldn’t see Fleetwood Mac touring again without McVie.

“That was Christine and I. We were on our own in that band. We always were. We protected each other,” she said. “Who am I going to look over to on the right and have them not be there behind that Hammond organ? When she died, I figured we really can’t go any further with this. There’s no reason to.”