Phoenixville Entrepreneur Turns Poems into Tunes

I can be a songwriter. You can be a songwriter. We can all be songwriters.

Thanks to the Web site MakeYourPoemASong.com, anyone can commission a tune for his or her original poetry or prose.

Make Your Poem a Song’s “living, breathing composers” create original music to accompany a client’s literary work. The site was founded by Phoenixville resident David Hawkins, who said the concept came to him in a dream.

“It started as I was sitting at work one day in 2006, trying to think of what I would actually rather be doing at that moment,” Hawkins said. “I thought, ‘Well, I’m a musician, I love music and playing music, so how can I incorporate that into my life?’”

One night following his epiphany, Hawkins said he woke up with a start at 4 a.m., with a fully formed plan.

“I jumped out of my bed and started writing ideas on the nearest piece of paper,” he said. “I filled four pieces of paper from top to bottom. It was completely vivid and clear.”

He began working, spending every spare moment over the next two years working through concepts, bouncing ideas off of family and friends and contracting talented musicians to work with him. The site launched in 2007, and Hawkins said he still has those four sheets of paper with his original notes.

Hawkins runs the day-to-day operations for Make Your Poem a Song, often assisting in the composing process, managing the musical consultants and keeping everyone on deadline. Getting the Web site going has been a labor of love.

“It was hard. I have to tell you, there is no glory at all in getting a startup business together,” Hawkins said. “But ultimately, there’s a sense of accomplishment and pride when you’re done. It’s my baby.”

Hawkins’ site gives clients ultimate control and creative liberty over their commissioned song. They can choose from one-of-a-kind Music Menus, including genre, emotions, suggested instruments, sound effects, time signature and vocals. Hawkins described the trademarked menus as a tool for clients to draw a blueprint for the composer.

Hawkins’ Make Your Poem a Song team includes a network of about 40 composers, vocalists and musicians from around the world. They specialize in music of various genres in order to cater music to a client’s every possible request. The whole process takes about 30 days, start to finish.

Make Your Poem a Song is for everyone, Hawkins said. His clients have run the gamut, including a teenager in love, a couple celebrating their 40^th wedding anniversary and a soldier stationed in Iraq. Orders have come from all over the world: Australia, England and across the U.S.

“I mean, who wouldn’t want to give a band their words and say, ‘Take my words and make them sound like this,’” Hawkins said.

 Even Hawkins himself gave the process a whirl.

“I tried it myself, and gave my poem, anonymously, to a composer,” he said. “It came out great! I loved it. It was so cool to anticipate how it would sound, and when I got it back it was more than I could have imagined.”

Despite his business’ fledgling nature, Hawkins is already engaging in philanthropy. The soldier who commissioned a song while stationed in Iraq received a military discount, Hawkins said, and Make Your Poem a Song donates a portion of the proceeds from each song to the cancer charity of the client’s choice.

Hawkins, a computer specialist who works at an audio/visual company during the day, is a lifelong Montgomery County resident, having grown up in Lansdale. He enjoys spending time with good friends, laughing his butt off and, not surprisingly, music. He currently lives in Phoenixville with his black lab, Moe.

To learn more about Make Your Poem a Song, visit www.makeyourpoemasong.com or e-mail david@songmakerllc.com.