For Rachel Wiegand, a budding singer-songwriter, her bedroom is both refuge and practice space

Published 7:36 pm Friday, May 23, 2008

Rachel Wiegand likes the aesthetics of her bedroom. She said she’s comfortable there.

Still, she’s itching to leave.

That’s the message in her poem “Mukilteo Beach.” The Kamiak High School junior, who is 16, wrote the poem last summer in a creative writing class at the University of Washington.

“I want to leave here,” Wiegand said, explaining the poem’s subtle angst. “I want to be starting something that is actually important.”

For the most part, the Mukilteo teen shrugs off the things in her room as just things. They’re not treasures or keepsakes. It’s just stuff. The plastic see-through shoetree hanging outside her closet contains a rainbow of footwear. It catches the eye of a visitor. Whatever.

“They’re just shoes,” Wiegand said. “I’m a girl.”

What’s important to this young poet are her books. And, for this singer-songwriter who has given solo shows in local cafes since the ninth grade, her guitars.

“It’s good reassurance,” said Wiegand of the positive reaction to her music. “I play a lot in my room where I’m always thinking ‘Is this even any good?’”

IN MY ROOM

Independence

With her first paycheck from her first job as a grocery store courtesy clerk, Wiegand bought a clock. “I like the way clocks look. In a lot of ways they’re decorative and so useful, though that’s now an hour behind.”

Creative outlet

There are three guitars in Wiegand’s bedroom. On the oldest one a friend has etched the thrasher metal band’s name “Slayer.” Another is made out of wood found in Hawaii. The one Wiegand uses is an electric acoustic, a Christmas present from Mom. “If there was a fire I’d be running out with my guitars. I can do something with those.”

The writer

Could be that’s what Wiegand becomes. She’s checking out colleges on the East Coast. “I really love my books. I’ve learned a lot from them. I feel bad about leaving them here, but I’ll have to.”

Exception

Wiegand said she doesn’t ever hang music posters on the wall, but in the case of the indie folk group Iron and Wine, she made an exception. “I really like them. The songs are really simple and it sounds good and feels good when you listen to it.”

“Mukilteo Beach”

The tide floods up over my sneakers,

all that for a shell

My socks are wet and sloppy

Like generations before us,

the docks roll and reverse

with the rhythm of the Sound

Soon you will move away

and soon you’ll be dead

But there’s so much more to it than that right now

The salt gathers at my ankles

in a sticky, bitter mess

Eventually these spots will be for fire and drinks,

but for now it’s just the shells

The water swishes about by my feet

I sit on the edge of the Sound

to dry out and grow up

By Rachel Wiegand