Few teenagers find ways in which they are willing to express themselves. For sophomore Mark Scott and his (at one point) token yellow beanie, an outlet of expression has been found.
“My love of music and poetry all started when I picked up the guitar in 7th grade,” Scott said. “I had a guitar teacher who would only teach me songs, but I was more interested in the theory of guitar (chords and scales) because that would help me more with composing and writing. After about five lessons, I started teaching myself guitar from things I saw on the Internet and read in books.”
Scott’s love for music eventually led to his love for poetry.
“I always enjoyed singing. I would write these songs, and of course I would need lyrics for them, I wasn’t going to do tribal chants or anything,” Scott said. “That’s really what started me out with songwriting, which eventually led to poetry.”
Originally boredom was what got Scott more interested in poetry.
“I would get bored at school and my iPod was broken, and it wasn’t like I could just whip out my guitar,” Scott said. “I started writing either song lyrics with a rough melody in mind and at times just straight up poetry.”
At first there was little variety in the subjects of his songs.
“At the beginning, most of my songs were about girl problems,” Scott said. “After a while, I started finding new things that inspired me, such as Franz Kafka’s poetry and short stories. Lately, I’ve been trying to write about all types of things, so that I’m capable of writing about a broader spectrum of things.”
However, Scott has had trouble with too much variation in the actual content of his songs.
“I go through stages with different types of songs. The problem with me is if I’m writing a certain type of music for three or four months, a lot of times I’ll find it really repetitive. Sometimes I’ll have to force myself to try a new genre, just to keep it fresh.”
Despite his current love for music, Scott had little exposure to it before his days in middle school.
“Apart from singing in the shower, I had no exposure to music,” Scott said. “I listened to almost exclusively rap up until around 6th grade. I feel that really comes through the soul component in the music I write.”
After being exposed to a variety of music in middle school, Scott still had other musical obstacles he faced, including finding time to practice.
“I don’t practice guitar as much as I’d like to. I can’t play it at home since my mom doesn’t like hearing it in the house,” Scott said. “If it were up to me, I’d like to practice eight hours a day but I often only get about an hour or so.”
Despite the problems he faces, he still loves the emotional output he gets from writing poetry and music.
“It’s a way I can convert raw emotion into creativity,” Scott said. “It allows me to do something with the problems I go through and get something productive out of them.”
He frequently lets his friends read his poetry, always hoping to improve on it.
“He gives me a new poem almost every day in our med-term class,” senior Madeline Wise said. “He is quite adamant that I read them, but I enjoy [reading] them; most of the time.”
Scott hopes to use poetry and music as a means to fix the romantic troubles he faces.
“A lot of my poetry focuses on girl problems, but I’m hoping to change that soon,” Scott said.
