Good to see you tackled this kind of a project. It's not easy to convert a poem to a song.

Poetry rarely works as a song without a major rewrite. Poetry doesn't have choruses, prechoruses, bridges, and therein lies the problem. In addition, the wording of poetry is quite often not in "normal everyday language" which further complicates the issue. They say things backwards and this happens in your song.

It is possible to use a poem as the basis for a song however. Like I said...with a rewrite.

Also, it's good to note... in song structure.... all the verses should have the same chord progression, and the same rhythmic pattern and lyrical rhyme scheme. For example, if V1 line 1 has 8 syllables, all the verses should have 8. And this applies to each line in every verse. If verse 1 has rhymes on line 1&2 and on 3&4, the rest of the verses should follow that exact pattern.

As far as having a song with no chorus.... I think that's totally acceptable, especially in some specific genre's such as folk. I believe some of Bob Dylan's early stuff fit that form. However, while it's considered poetry in music, the things I mentioned, lyrical rhyme, chords, groove, were all written to be a song.

Times they are a changing is an example.... but it could be argued that the hook is a short chorus since it is repeated.

You can find my music at:
www.herbhartley.com
Add nothing that adds nothing to the music.
You can make excuses or you can make progress but not both.

The magic you are looking for is in the work you are avoiding.