hika.

As the author of “Battle Scars,” Yemaya Gaspard’s work will be included in the 2025-2026 edition of HIKA. Gaspard is a Psychology and Spanish double major and an English minor at Kenyon. 

What was the inspiration behind battle scars? 

Basically, in November I was working on trying to try new things with poetry because my professor—Hannah in the English department—was encouraging us to just try new things, and for a few writing exercises I did, I was trying to kind of take on the persona or perspective of other people. And in this one, particularly, I was thinking of a lot of people in my life because a lot of people were going through a bunch of like separations and breakups and stuff at that time because November can be weird for people, especially with breaks and stuff. And actually, when I got this reviewed in class, the person I was working with had also been going through a breakup, so she was like, “oh, you could do this, you could do that.” So having other people’s perspectives and having my friends talk to me about their situations was inspirational for me and I could kind of take like essences of what they were experiencing and trying to put it into my work to try to assume their thought process, their mindset. 

I was also feeling quite inspired by one of my favorite musical artists, Taylor Swift, because she has one song that deals with war themes and references. But then also, she has a lot of breakup songs as people typically know. So it’s quite interesting to hear how she went about certain things, and mixing and blending common themes in her work that I’ve listened to and really enjoyed and then trying to match that with things I was hearing from people who were experiencing it. 

Do you have any other artists or authors that you think have influenced your work? 

In general, I feel like everything I read or listen to is feeding me all the time. Anything I have in my head is coming from somewhere else and it’s kind of me just changing it or adjusting it or mixing it with something else to try to make it my own. ‘Cause it’s so easy for me to hear something from someone and be like, “wow, I really liked how they did that. Let me try my version.” So I would say Taylor Swift is specifically helpful for that, but also some of the songs that I listen to in Spanish. Like for example, Selena Quintanilla. I really like some of her sad songs because I feel like you can really hear the emotion in there and the emotion that she provides in there allows me to think of how I could transfer it into writing. 

I’m trying to think of other artists. I feel like Taylor Swift is like one of my most recent big ones just because I like listening to her lyrics and I like how she focuses on the writing and imagery, most of the time, rather than just how it sounds. But I feel like she’s definitely a big one. And then also like Beyonce. I don’t think I need to elaborate. 

You use a lot of vivid imagery in your poem. Do you like to include that kind of language in your other works? And are there any other craft elements that you like to include? 

Yeah, I would definitely say I like to include imagery in my pieces because deep down I will always be a prose writer and that’s how I started everything. I will never describe myself as a poet because I just feel like that’s not the right title for me. But I do like poetry because I feel like it is easier for me to start, so it’s easy for me to transfer the things that I love about prose into a shorter form. Also, I like the way that things sound in terms of rhythm and rhyme sometimes. So in general, I like to really focus on the description and setting a scene and trying to display an emotion or a feeling in words, which can be really difficult. But trying to depict it in a way that I feel like makes sense, that can also be like an interesting thing to do. But in general, I would say, definitely description and imagery, so people get a feel of what I’m trying to depict. And then even with the metaphors, I want them to feel like they’re tangible.

Do you have any ideas or themes that you want to explore in the near future? 

I was thinking about that. I was listening to a few of my favorite artists like Lorde and Taylor Swift recently and thinking about some things that they explore in their writing, and I kind of wanted to try to tackle them in my own right. Like how I was saying before, with the inspiration thing. Because I think it would be interesting, but also, I just got feedback on my final from my professor for my multi genre creative writing class. And I’m planning on looking at that and trying to reconstruct the work that I did because I was really trying new things that I hadn’t before, specifically with poetry. Also with prose, because I haven’t written real prose in what feels like a long time. So I think I’m just going to go wherever the wind takes me and try to do things that I don’t usually do. 

Could you tell me a little bit about your writing process? 

It usually strikes me in the middle of the night, as I mentioned to you previously. Like, it’ll be either I think about something or I think about a movie or a show or music or just anything really, I’ll just have an idea. I’m like, “how could this be written?” Or I’m like, “I kind of want to write that down,” and then once I get that itch, I kind of just throw things out there. So it typically comes with me just being kind of struck with inspiration. I know people aren’t supposed to say that, but it’s true. And It’ll just hit me and I’m like, okay, how can I go about that? 

How did you 1st get interested in writing? 

Oh, when I was a wee little child. The first time I read a book, I was like: okay this was fire. And then as I continued to read — I learned to read when I was like two, or I was about to turn three — so as soon as I started reading, I was like, I really like this. I like being able to read it for myself. It was like if I can read, I wanna be able to make things too. So then I was just writing anything really, and the first thing I really wrote was when my sister was born when I was four. I wrote a birth story of her and I illustrated it myself, and then every now and then I would make little books about different things that happen in my life. 

But then I would start creating newer stories because I was like, “I want to read this. It doesn’t exist. I want to make it for myself.” So then, for my friend’s birthdays, I would write them stories. Like, I did this holiday princess thing where if their birthday was for a specific month, for example, I had a lot of friends in December and January, so I would make them each a story about this princess who was a Christmas princess. And it was like based off of Sophia the First, so then I would do that and then the Valentine’s princess, and then just kind of doing that. Those are most of the stories that I made. It’s just things that I thought were cool and I was inspired by Goddess Girls and fractured fairy tale style things, like mythology style things, like anything really. 

Do you think you’ve changed as a writer since you started?

Definitely, ‘cause unfortunately, going to an art school, I thought it would help my writing. It did in some ways, but then it kind of made me adjust to a way where if I’m not writing for an assignment, it’s hard to write because I didn’t have that spark of inspiration that I used to when I was younger. But I was trying to refind my writing style. My love for writing was interesting in high school, because I wanted to just get something out quick, so I was writing poetry, and I never wanted to write poetry before. I kind of actually liked it, like a little bit. I will always love prose more, but I can’t write prose. It takes a lot of effort nowadays. So I think I’ve changed in that regard where I was a bit more open to poetry and different genres, and also exploring creative nonfiction besides like the little children’s books I was writing when I was a wee child. So that was quite interesting. I would say in college, I’m trying to do more prose again, because I feel like it was easier in my last class, but I did enjoy the flexibility of being able to choose whatever I wanted to write in. 

Do you have any advice for people who want to be writers but are afraid to start? 

I would say if you want to write, read, and then that something will get you. Something in that book, you’ll like a line or like the way that the plot is designed or whatever. If you can’t read, watch a movie, it’s the same thing. You can’t watch a movie, listen to a song. And then anything that comes to mind, just write it down. And like, even if you’re just writing gibberish, as long as you start something, It’ll go somewhere. You just have to start.