In Search of Poetry

I had the opportunity to study different types of writing in college. Poems. Short stories. Novels. This is something I hope every college student gets to do, no matter the major or area of study.

My favorite work to analyze was always the novel. I felt like I had a ton of material to work with. Now I no longer have to write analysis papers. But why not further diversify my reading by including works that aren’t novels? I want to but my experience with poetry is limited. It’d be easy to just Google search “20th century poets” or something like that and go with whatever I see. I don’t want to.

There are two poets I’ve been looking for. Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson. I can’t remember ever studying either of them, but I know their personal stories are well known. Plath committed suicide at a young age. And Dickinson’s poems were largely unknown during her lifetime.

I’m open to suggestions here. Which poets have you enjoyed reading?

A Christmas Poem

The lights are on

The tree is lit

Let’s watch Lebron

Get the win

Ha! Merry Christmas to you if you celebrate. And to those who just want the day to be over, we’re almost there. 🎄

January: A Review

January was okay on the blog. It was nothing compared to last January, but eh. I guess I’ll have to take the blame for that. The first month of the year has come and gone, and now it’s time for some numbers.

Posts: 31

Likes: 632

Comments: 431

Followers: 3353

Books Read: 2

Poems: 1

YouTube Videos: 2

I lied. January actually turned out to be better than expected. I know two books is nothing to cheer about, but at least I did get started on my 2016 Reading Challenge, right? AND I posted a poem on here for the first time in a million years. AND I’m getting a little more consistent on my channel. All positives. The other numbers are pretty average.

Now let’s look at some posts.

Top Post

On Alan Rickman

Favorite Post

Guess Who Officially Has a Custom YouTube Url?!

Post you may Have Missed

2016 Reading Challenge Book #$2: The Thomas Berryman Number

The top post of the month was pretty predictable, although I hadn’t checked before writing this. But Alan Rickman was beloved actor, and his death brought about the appropriate response from his fans. I finally got my own YouTube URL, which of course is exciting. AND I’m really planning on expanding my channel to greater heights in the coming months. Which I hope you’ll join me for.

All in all, January was pretty nice. I know I enjoyed it. How was your opening month of 2016?

 

I’m not Good (poem)

I’m not Good

I’m not good at poems
I’m not good with words
Or on the phone
I’m trying to learn

Another Month Gone

2015 is rapidly coming to a close. And the bloggity here is going with it. I barely started reading posts on here again within the last two or three days. It isn’t that I’m not interested, it’s that in the mornings I’m either sleeping or getting ready for work. And at night I’m usually watching a TV show or basketball game. But I’m just making excuses. I read a bunch of posts last night. And hopefully I will before bed tonight too. All I can do is try. Anyway, let’s talk about November stats.

Posts: 30

Likes: 458

Comments: 418

Followers: 3255

Books Read: 0

Poems: 0

YouTube Videos: 0

Welp. Lows across the board. Of course. Basically what I’ve come to expect at this point. My girlfriend says it best. I’m still on WordPress quite a bit, but I’m not really into it. *sad face* I’m trying, guys.

The one interesting thing that came out of November is that I’m thinking of doing one of two things. Maybe both. I’m thinking of reviving my sports blog OR turning that into a YouTube channel. Probably doesn’t make much sense, but the reason I don’t make more videos on my current channel is because I need to be reading something in order to make a video. Whereas in sports there is ALWAYS something for me to talk about. Always. I guess we’ll see.  Now for some posts.

Top Post

A NaNo Alternative

Favorite Post

What I Learned From Katniss Everdeen

Post you may Have Missed

Saturday Selects #21: My problem with football

No surprise about the top post this month. NaNo is something people are always interested in reading about, and I think I wrote a handful of posts against it in November. Yikes. I’m crazy. Hm. What else? The Hunger Games movies ended for me, which means the series is officially over. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t just a little saddened by this. I love Katniss and that series so much. More than I’ll likely enjoy any series ever again. And it’s over. Maybe one day I’ll go against my rereading rule and reread those three books. Wouldn’t hurt to relive the rebellion with Katniss once again. Wouldn’t hurt at all.

So that’s it. My month in a tiny nutshell. How was your November?

Floptober October

The title of this post is misleading. October turned out to be just fine. Well, relative to recent months.

In October I had even fewer site views than I did in September, which had easily been the low for the year. But eh, that’s not so bad. The number of unique visitors and comments were about the same or increased from last month. Now let’s look at the numbers.

Posts: 31

Likes: 576

Comments: 641

Followers: 3241

Books Read: 0

Poems: 0

YouTube Videos: 1

Pretty standard stuff for the current run of things. The first half of the year would have seen higher numbers across the board, but that’s okay. 2015 is still going to be a pretty damn good year on the blog. I still haven’t been reading even though I posted a new video showing y’all all the books I bought in September. And still no more poems posted here. Oh well.

Now for some posts.

Top Post

Saturday Selects #20: Gun Violence in America

Favorite Post:

No, These Book Series are not the Same

Post you may Have Missed

Books and Chill

I’d have to go back to verify it, but I think this may have been the first month in which a Saturday Selects post took the top spot. And it isn’t surprising. I knew the day I posted it that it would make something of a splash. And it did. With the presidential election here in the US coming in 12 months, I imagine it won’t be the last time I bring up a political or social issue on the blog. Heck, Saturday Selects will be here again this week. And the topic has already been decided upon.

So take a look at those posts if you happened to miss any of the three, and don’t forget to tell me about your month on WordPress. We’re all nice around here. Mostly. How was your month and Halloween?

September was one big Fail

Welp. In my August recap I declared that I’d be better at blogging regularly and reading posts. Turns out I lied. I’m pretty sure I read posts from only one blogger all month. I took forever to reply to comments at times. And I just barely managed to keep my streak of posting everyday alive. There were multiple days on which I posted just minutes before midnight. Oh well. Now let’s look at some stats. Previous record in parenthesis.

Posts: 30 (31)

Likes: 566 (837)

Comments: 516 (2121)

Followers: 3220

Books Read: 0 (4)

Poems: 0 (2)

YouTube Videos: 0 (3)

Lows across the board. This month ended up being very similar to January. Which had been the worst month of the year. I didn’t post everyday. And I struggled to find any kind of rhythm. I didn’t read a single page in September. I didn’t post any new poems on here. But I did write a few. And it just wasn’t the kind of month that I’ve grown used to. My plan is to write multiple posts at once so I’m not having to worry about them each night. Now for some posts.

Top Post

I’m Scared to do This

Favorite Post

Saturday Selects: It’s all about control

Post you may Have Missed

Here we go Again

I wish I could tell you for certain that I’ll get back into the swing of things here, but I have no idea if that’ll really happen. I still like blogging okay. I still like interacting with y’all about a variety of things. But I just have no motivation at the moment to stick to my regular schedule. Before it took power outages to get me to write posts outside of my regular time, and now I do it every week for no reason at all.

In other news, I’m about to finish up my probation period at Half Price Books. So that’s exciting. I think I’m doing just fine over there. And I think I’ll be getting to work on some new YouTube videos soon. Today or tomorrow, perhaps?

But who cares what I’m doing? How was your month?

Baseball is Back (poem)

Baseball is Back

Spring is here
That’s a fact
It’s time to cheer
Cause baseball is back

The season is long

And grueling for some

To me, it’s a song

Simply perfection

You Part 2 (poem)

You part 2

That smile of yours
Is just not fair
Stuck to the floor
I’d stop and stare

And also your eyes
I’d just get lost in
I’d reach new highs
I’d never been

Can’t forget your height
The size of a kid
But with more might
And simply perfect

Last but not least
Your sarcasm leads the way
I wish I could keep
Everything you say

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This is a companion poem to this one. The first is meant to tell a story. This one is meant to tell you about the girl.

You (poem)

You

You used to not know me
And I not you
But that changed quickly
It was then me and you

But that wasn’t the case
No, not really
It was more of a chase
And I couldn’t see

That I’d never catch you
You were too fast
I was just a fool
Who could only finish last

I was done chasin’
What I thought could be
I made my declaration
And you spoke honestly

My worst nightmare
Had finally come true
I could only stare
At the person I thought was you

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On this day in 2014 I published Amazon’s List 100 Books Everyone Should Read: 29. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.