PoetryGraffitiArtLyrics

‘Song lyrics – that is how I experience poetry’ said a good friend of mine. Indeed, the lyrics of Kurt Cobain, Robert Smith and Jehst were some of my first experiences of phrases that opened up a deeper level of my mind. The words of these artists traced comet tails through my adolescent mind; I wrote my favourites on my school folder. My friend used Tippex to mark the words of great and not-so-great musicians all over his black art portfolio. They were arranged around a central motif that read, ‘Nuke Ibiza!’ – James Dean ate his heart out from beyond the grave.

My teenage contemporaries and I scratched lyrics into school desks, on bus stops; anywhere. I remember taking a pungent permanent marker to my best friend’s bedroom wall, writing the Cypress Hill lyric:

‘zipadee doo dah, zipadee ay – my oh my wanna get that punk with my AK’.

The crude satire, rhythm and rhyme captured me; and still does to an extent. The lyrics of your favorite songs will echo through your thoughts for a lifetime. They may inspire great joy but do not let your appreciation of song writing cuckold a passion for poetry. Do not worry; there is room in your soul for both. Poetry has no riff or chord, cannot rely on rhythm and fashion – it has no haircuts (apart from Byron’s ill-advised turban). It limits itself to one tool – words. Windy, spangling words.  And words, rightly used, can create hues more subtle than even an artist’s brush. The best poets can paint pictures with your thoughts. Part of reading poetry is allowing the words to take control of your thoughts and lead you into new and terrific waters.

The difference between song lyrics and poetry is like the difference between classical art and graffiti. Graffiti has the effect of taking your mind into an impact of colour, vibration and realization. Typically, it takes one message and focuses on communicating it with deft accuracy (eg. Banksy and Obey). Graffiti, however, yields little on subsequent views, rarely conveys more than one meaning and does not yield itself to multiple interpretations unlike more mainstream art. Appreciating song lyrics and not poetry is like only enjoying graffiti and refusing to engage with other types of art. There’s something sublime about plunging earphones into the sides of your head and hearing Chesta P deliver the lines,

‘I die hard when the mic’s charged
each bar’s so deep
when I speak
you need a lifeguard’.

But similarly, nothing touches reading Blake’s ‘Book of Urizen’ for the first time:

‘In his hills of stor’d snows, in his mountains
Of hail and ice; voices of terror
Are heard, like thunders of autumn
When the cloud blazes over the harvests.’

Never feed your head meagre rations – song lyrics should not replace poetry. So I say to my friend, there is space in your soul for poetry too.

By Nathan Thompson