Poetry vs Songwriting
learning new creative languages
I titled my first solo show of visual artwork: Painting as a Second Language. My primary art practice at the time was poetry. Both modes of creation lean upon the imagination, a sense of rhythm and form, the balance of tension with resolution, and symmetry with its lack. When I’m in making mode, Poetry engages my ear and brain, whereas painting largely ignites my body and requires my eye to make the tough choices.
Then along came a third language. Two years ago, I began writing songs with my partner Zack, who is a long-time recording artist and producer. We’re nearly done mixing and mastering our second album and I’m playing keyboard in our band, WUNDERCAT. I got to thinking about the similarities and differences between poetry and songwriting while corresponding with a poet friend Kevin. (BTW, Kevin has a fantastic new book out: Dreaming as One about the poetry scene in Bolinas, CA, from 1967 to 1980.)
Anyhow, poetry and songwriting may share basic principles, but each art form takes a different road to arrive. A poet has visual cues like line breaks, extra spacing, and punctuation to guide a reader’s journey. Song lyrics require a heavier reliance on sonic cues like rhyme, rhythmic regularity, and repetition to lay out the listener’s map. I’ve found that the tools of distillation and refracted meaning that I labor over in my poems can just get in the way of a good song. What can sound too “sing-songy” in a poem may work brilliantly when a lyric is colored by minor chords, a change in tempo, and the interplay of melody and harmony.
Though the strategies of composition may vary, the process of exploring this “third language” of songwriting has been thrilling. (Don’t even get me started on the fourth adventure of learning the keyboard and playing live shows.) It all rolls up to a sort of creative cross-training that’s both challenging and rewarding, as most stretch goals are.
If there’s something you’ve always wanted to learn, don’t hold back. Dive in, be diligent, and push past the frustration and self-questioning that is central to most creative endeavors. When you start dreaming in that other language, you’ll be hearing a voice that’s uniquely yours.
If you live in the Bay Area, our band WUNDERCAT is playing at Coyote Sonoma in Healdsburg on August 2nd and HopMunk in Sebastopol on August 30th. Would love to see you there!
