For this feature, Westside Wired interviewed some of the many poets at Westside High School. This article include juniors Sophie Clark and Elizabeth West.  Also included in the article are poems written by Clark and West.

Sophie Clark

Junior Sophie Clark, known for being the lead singer of her band Clark and Company, doesn’t just write songs. In addition to composing the lyrics and occasionally the music for Clark and Company songs, Clark started out writing poetry in seventh grade. The catalyst for Clark writing poetry was being taught more about it during the poetry unit of her seventh grade English class.

“Aside from writing poetry at school, I wrote poetry just for myself,” Clark said. “I have so many notebooks that have poetry in them, and I try to write a lot.”

Clark began writing poetry before she began writing the lyrics to her band’s songs. Eventually, she began to transfer some of the words and ideas from her poetry into her songs when she was in eighth grade. Though nowadays, she keeps the style and procedures in which she writes lyrics and poetry separate.

“There’s kind of a different format I have with writing poetry than writing songs because [songs] have verses and choruses,” Clark said. “I write more [now] in the song format than in the regular poetry format, so it’s harder to switch between the two because I do songwriting more.”

When deciding whether an idea she has will end up being written as song lyrics or a poem, Clark explained that if she has “something powerful to say in a couple of words,” she sees that being more fit for a poem, while if she has “a mood or style” she wants to express, she sees that more along the lines of song lyrics. Clark went on to elaborate:

“Sometimes I feel like writing lyrics is easier for me because that comes more naturally to me than writing music,” Clark said.

Concerning her poetry, Clark’s poems vary in theme depending on her mood, and are mostly short, because Clark enjoys leaving “more of the interpretation to the reader, and give them room to interpret it.”

She also goes for deeper meaning with her poetry, as well as her song lyrics, but doesn’t mind creating something simple and light at the same time.

Poetry has shaped Clark’s life in many ways, and she views it as a wonderful way to express emotions and get them from mind to paper.

“It [poetry] is a really good outlet for me to express my emotions and it’s helped me with writing in general, and forming ideas and putting them on a page in a way that people can interpret it with their own thoughts,” Clark said. “It’s the form of expression I feel most comfortable with and use most. It’s like my best art form.”

~

Floating;

On a thin line between

Two forms of matter,

Two different worlds,

Two ways of life.

Sinking;

Into the unknown,

Into the silence,

Into the heart of the sea.

Feeling;

Surrounded by peace,

The slowing of time,

Weightlessly free.

Longing;

To hold this moment

Longer than one

Can hold their breath.

~

Elizabeth West

Junior Elizabeth West truly got into poetry when she entered high school due to the former debate coach Dana Christensen showing her that her poetry didn’t have to be completely structured around what “normal” poetry was perceived as, as well as Christensen helping her come out of her metaphoric box and allowed her to be more “out there.”

Slam poetry, which is geared more towards performance, is the style of poetry West enjoys and does the most. The poems she was writing before she entered high school, more often than not, went onto paper and stayed there, but now she is more focused on letting her poetry leave the paper and enter into the world through her own performance of it.

Reoccurring themes in West’s poems include her childhood and past, because she grew up in a “non-conventional” way, so she translates the struggles from her situation into her poetry.

West has specific hopes and aspirations for her poetry in the future and what she can do with it.

“I’d like to publish [my poetry] if I could,” West said. “I’ve looked into a couple of places that people I know have gotten published before, but other than that, not really. [Slam poetry] is more like an outlet to me, I don’t write it for other people, I usually just write it for myself.”

In her opinion, West’s biggest achievement is being a part of Westside’s Poetry Club and competing in the Louder Than a Bomb competition.

“We [the Poetry club] got to semifinals last year, and that’s probably the biggest thing that I’ve participated in,” West said. “I’m hoping we’ll get to finals this year, though.”

As she grows older, West hopes to continue writing poetry for as long as she can.

“I’m hoping that I won’t stop writing because it’s something that I really enjoy and I think that I could keep it going, if not for performance, then just for fun,” West said.

~

I see her eyes in your pupils

every time we kiss, her lips seem to

press back against mine

instead of yours.

her foot tapping is in your wrist watch.

at two in the morning,

I lie awake listening for her breathing in your exhales.

the wrinkles that crinkle by the corners of your mouth

just remind me of my sweet lady

from way back when

the crinkles were just wrinkles in freshly washed sheets

that smelled of sugar coated lavender.

The freckles that dotted her nose

appear in the speckled constellations on your knees and elbows,

making me double over in sour-stinging loss

that rolls through my stomach

laying waste to my intestines

churning up bile in my brain i thought had been dead.

Her inflections are carried in your sultry voice box

when i look in the mirror,

the sharp intake below my ribs

remind me of her hips

and how she danced.

across a floor littered with our secrets

painted faces in the window reflection

the memory of her laugh

are in your pearly whites, my dear.

her footsteps coming down the hall as you tap your fingers on the dinner table,

her in the him, her in the him, her in the him,

I see her when I look at you,

from way back when

the crinkles were wrinkles in sheets torn and worn

and the freckles were the aftermath of a bad sunburn,

and the sour-stinging loss had been for the him before her.

It’s all just

aftermath.

~