The Accidental Poet

I knew even from an early age that I was artistic; and to this day, that creative spark has never diminished. The problem, like many children growing up, was finding my niche. A specific art form that I wanted to associate myself with. So, I tried to search for it in different crafts; drawing, cartooning, music, making short films at home, or even creating stories in my head that never ended up on paper. Interestingly enough, poetry was not one of them.

When I was in school, poetry was never a serious ambition of mine. In fact, I found it to be quite boring. I may have penned a few poorly written poems as a homework assignment, but never for the fun of it. It was just another checkbox I had to mark off. What I really wanted to be was a storyteller, whether it was for a novel or even a screenplay. My shallow understanding of the power of writing was limited to storytelling, which gave me an ill-conceived view of what poetry was. I merely saw it as a lower form of literature. I would almost say that I didn’t categorize it as literature at all. As you can imagine, I originally found no reason to pursue poetry. So how did it all change? How did I end up enjoying something that I never thought would appeal to me? I think music was the first step in that direction.

Music has always been an integral part of my family. It accompanied us in many aspects of life; like an epic film score during a road trip to a national park, jazzy tunes from the fifties that serenaded our family gatherings, or gospel music that refreshed us throughout the day just to name a few. On top of that, many of us can sing, play an instrument, or do a combination of the two. I was no exception. I taught myself how to sing, I took piano lessons, and very briefly learned a few chords on the guitar, but I didn’t get very far. Even though music inspired me, I was still convinced that storytelling was my true calling. So, I kept music in the back burner, at least for a season. It wasn’t until a few years later that I picked up the guitar again, but this time it was more intentional. As I grew in confidence, I started serving in worship ministry at a few different churches. Soon I began to realize that I had a natural instinct for music, and the urge to expand it was too great to ignore. That is when I decided to start writing my own songs.

With a pencil, a notebook, and an acoustic guitar on my lap, I began composing song lyrics. My first attempts were nothing to brag about. If anything, they were just a mixture of unoriginal lyrics and themes that I borrowed from other songs. They were anything but poetic. Even when I tried, I failed miserably. At first, I was intimidated to explore rhyme schemes and poetic expressions. I simply avoided them, thinking they were too daunting or too difficult to waste energy on. Eventually, I did push myself to go that extra mile, and the results were more fulfilling, even if they were still far from perfect. The more songs I wrote, the more it became clear to me that this was one of the things I was made to do. With a newfound sense of clarity, I wanted to improve this skill. This also meant strengthening my poetic prose. Bob Dylan had a lot to do with that.

I’m not sure if I can say that I’m a fan of Dylan’s abilities as a musician, but his songs and lyrical content have captivated me. His use of visual imagery, rhyming, and integrated storytelling is something that very few have achieved in the world of songwriting. This was one of the reasons he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2016. So, I began to study his lyrics and tried to mimic his vernacular. Slowly and surely, my voice became more descriptive and adventurous. Obviously, I could never compare myself with Dylan, but I credit him for teaching me how to think like a poet. This would unexpectedly open the door to other poets as well, and I walked through it.

I started to read the poems of Robert Frost, Billy Collins, and T. S. Eliot. Their work showed me how poetry can speak a thousand words with only a few lines. That it can hold the weight of a story in a few pages or less. These poets, along with Dylan, radically changed my perception of what poetry is. When I began to see its potential, I also came to realize how wrong I was about it all these years. It’s much more than just rhyme and rhythm on a page; it's a profound form of literature that is capable of cutting deep in the first few minutes of reading it. It can communicate something to the reader and surprise them with a sense of wonder that they didn’t initially expect. Like many other readers of poetry, I too was struck with a sense of wonder.

And that’s how I got here. A person who went from showing little to no interest in poetry, to someone who embraces it. Although I still consider myself to be a songwriter at heart, I also find myself to be no stranger to poetry. It taught me to be a deeper thinker and to view the world through a different lens. To ponder on the simple moments of God’s intricate creation that can only point to Him. Just being able to express that in song or in a simple poem is a priceless privilege, and I have no intention of stopping now. If you ever get the chance, I hope that my words surprise you as poetry surprised me.