This week I’ve been thinking about words in different formats. Lyrics and poetry are very similar for me, at least in the methods I use to form them. I rarely write either anymore, but occasionally some bolt from the ether strikes and suddenly words form. More on this in a moment.
To be honest, I’d been wracking my brains this week to come up with some meaningful blog/newsletter content. It’s got busy at work again so where do you draw inspiration from when your days are filled with office tasks, housework, cleaning up after aging pets, writing, cooking and cleaning.
Hmm, what would a writer do?
Ooh, I know! Lean on some creations of the past! I have a collection of poems and songs that I’ve written over the years. I don’t aim to do anything with them (although you may find a couple hiding on SoundCloud if you look hard enough), I just use them to get things out, things I don’t necessarily even know I’m holding onto.
That’s what I meant when I said the methods for lyrics and poems are similar. Poetry is very spontaneous for me. I just have a sudden urge to write. I think the reason I seldom write poems is because I’m generally thinking about, and writing, my novels now.
With songs, one technique I’ve used for years is just to play a rhythm (on acoustic guitar if you like to visualise) and then literally start singing and see what comes out. Occasionally something that makes some sort of sense happens, and then I have the basis of a song. The song itself is not important, I just think it’s a great way to maintain a healthy psychology.
Winter Wrapped in this cold blanket. It’s not enough without your warmth, without your touch, without your voice. I lie here for days, sometimes weeks, months. A year passes without change, without consequence. Wrapped in this cold blanket. I can’t sleep. The world is a haze, a dream, a nightmare. Beauty lies beyond my touch, beyond my world. I think of flowers, mountains, the sun. I think of you and me, hand in hand. But for now, I lie. Wrapped in this cold blanket.
This is a recent poem I wrote. On the face of it, the poem could just be about winter in England. That feeling of being trapped; it’s dark, it’s cold, sometimes you don’t see any blue for weeks. But “winter” could also be a metaphor for the way I was feeling at the time, and in fact I did write the title later. The word “lie” could mean lying down or lying to myself and the poem itself is “wrapped” by the repetition of the line (that bit was intentional).
It might seem weird that I say could mean (didn’t you write it?!) but that’s the point, I didn’t plan this. I didn’t think, “I know, I’ll write a poem about this”. I just wrote it and then afterwards sat and thought about what I wrote, and why. It’s not always about me (honest!), sometimes I just like to tell a story in a different way.
That’s one of the things I love most about poetry and lyrics. Trying to figure out the “meaning behind the meaning”. It’s something I intentionally write into my books. If you just want to enjoy a song, you can, but it’s great when you can really relate to it; make it work for you.
If you just want to follow a story, again you can, but if you want to delve deeper, I try to make sure there’s something there for you to find.
Thanks for reading, and please feel free to share your own thoughts, poetry, a song that’s important to you – whatever – in the feed below.
A.J. Austin
theinnerlands.com 