Two Kinds of Snaps and One Lyricist
/By Rachel A., age 15
One morning, I sat at my desk, scrolling through old photographs. It was winter break, and I was in a poetry slump. I’d decided to switch gears, and try my hand at writing song lyrics. So, I turned to my reservoir of inspiration: my photo gallery.
The album’s title was: CLICK: Photos, created sometime in the summer of 2016. I scrolled through old snapshots with fresh eyes, as I usually did with my poems. However, unlike with poetry, I couldn't remember why I took the photos in the first place. The more I thought and stared, the more depth I discovered beyond the beautiful facade.
Inspired by a dramatic shot of a palm tree taken at the Huntington, I set out to write a song. To my surprise, I used poetry brainstorming techniques. For instance, I sketched out bubble maps and used word association to come up with the next line in the song. When I finally returned to poetry, I noticed my improvement in internal rhyme and meter.
Another photo inspiration was a snapshot of two stony bridges over a placid pond. They reminded me that, no matter how they are built, bridges serve the same purpose: to connect. Like bridges between verses and choruses, physical and intangible bridges alike facilitate deeper understanding between different disciplines, individuals, and cultures.
Bridges between disciplines enrich artists. Art enriches lives. When we apply this to our writing, we have a powerful effect on our audience, emotionally or otherwise.
