DISCOVER the 21ST CENTURY POET

Happy early St. Patrick’s Day!! St. Patrick, or sometimes known as the “Apostle of Ireland”, was a teenager from Roman Britain who was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave in early 5th century A.D. After six years of enslavement, he escaped. However, he decided to return to Ireland later on to spread the gospel. Today, we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, or “St. Patty’s” as a day to honor Irish culture and St. Patrick himself on March 17th, the same day he passed away

Put on clean clothes. I understand that some days it’s hard to shower, but when I put on a clean pair of clothes it makes me feel a lot more comfortable. Wash your face with soap and warm water, pat it dry softly. Do a face mask. Brush and floss your teeth—extra points if you use a mouthwash as well for ultimate freshness! Go for a coffee run—or tea, soda pop, or whatever floats your boat. Dance to your favorite music! 💃 🕺 Take a nap, focus on reclaiming your energy. Soak i

Hey there, my lovely readers! Today I have another fun announcement to share with you guys—I received my Emily Dickinson poetry award in the mail! As you know, I was awarded the 21st Century Emily Dickinson Award by Bookleaf Publishing when I completed their 21-day long poetry challenge. The award is even mentioned on the cover of my poetry collection, In the Midst (2025). On February 18th, coincidentally the same day I received my admission letter to my MA program, my physi

Life is about the little wins . Some days it’s those small coffee runs or simply washing your face that change your entire day around. Please focus on your little wins—they need to be celebrated too! Please share a kind word with those around you today—everyone deserves consideration, respect, and dignity. Sincerely, Your 21st century poet

Good evening, my lovely readers! I apologize for the late post today. Over the past few weeks, I have been quite busy party planning for a family event that happened last weekend. Therefore, today’s post will simply be a rather short yet exciting announcement—I was accepted into a MA program! I am quite nervous for this new chapter as this program will definitely be an exhilarating challenge. The program is in writing, focusing on fiction. I am looking forward to continuing m

It’s that time of the month again! I read a total of 18 books this month, bringing me to a total of 30/100 books read for my 2026 reading goal! I read: Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë The House on Mango Street (1983) by Sandra Cisneros The Faerie Queene (1590) by Edmund Spenser Beowulf (around 8th-11th century) by an unknown original author Selected Poems (1959) by Langston Hughes The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens The Wom

My dearest readers, I have been rather discontent as of late. I tire easily. I wish to rest and restore my spirit—maybe even my sanity at this point. Today, I simply wish to share a few songs that calm me on days such as this—on days where the light does not meet my eyes. Not every song on this list is happy, in fact, most are not. However, they risk the pain to feel something real. It is on days that I float around without my soul, that the realness of these songs brings me

Happy (late) Ash Wednesday! Congratulations to all those who will be practicing Lent this year. I pray for the strength of the Lord to come over you all during your 40-day journey of repentance, prayer and fasting leading up to Easter. Sincerely, Your 21st century poet

Today is President’s Day, it made me wonder what the holiday really entails apart from the lack of mail delivery and the name itself. Well, President’s Day is not only a day to celebrate the current president, whomever that may be at any point, but also any presidents throughout America’s 249 years (almost 250 years now). So if you have a favorite president, today’s the day to celebrate them. I stay out of politics here on my blog, but I just wanted to share that little fun

Happy early Valentine’s Day, readers! My anniversary just happens to be on the 12th of February, so my valentine and I have celebrated a sort of romantic weekend for the past four years rather than celebrating the two days separately. What do you guys like to do for Valentine’s Day? Our plan is a hot spring visit this year. What is the most romantic date supposed to be anyway? A candlelit dinner, a bathtub full of roses?—If you ask my man, it’s having a lightsaber duel, but

In a few days, Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (2026) will be released in theaters. I have been reading Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) and I do agree that the advertising is increasingly unsavory, especially with the trailer claiming that Wuthering Heights is “the greatest love story of all time”. I don’t agree with glorifying toxic and abusive relationships, so I am hoping that the advertising is simply misleading us viewers. We will see if the toxicity and ob

Good afternoon, readers! Today, I am giving y’all a list of 10 gothic films to end this beautiful winter on! Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025) Guillermo Del Toro’s Crimson Peak (2015) Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu (2024) Scott Cooper’s The Pale Blue Eye (2022) Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999) Catherine Hardwicke’s Red Riding Hood (2011) Tim Burton’s Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016) Tim Burton’s Dark Sh

Happy Groundhog Day! I may or may not be a fan of a groundhog telling an entire nation or two how many days are left of winter, but here we are anyway! If you’re looking for a fun activity to spend the holiday, I suggest you watch Groundhog Day (1993) starring Bill Murray! Thank you, Punxsutawney Phil! Sincerely, Your 21st century poet

At the end of each month throughout this year, I will share the books I read during that month! In January of 2026, I managed to read 12 books—only 88 more to go to reach my 2026 reading goal! In the Midst (2025) by Emma E. Campbell You Need to Exist (2024) by Dominic Harrison Lavender Clouds (2024) by Bex Ollerton Teen Titans: Robin (2023) by Kami Garcia Teen Titans: Starfire (2024) by Kami Garcia Ladies Lunch and Other Stories (2023) by Lore Segal Fun Home: A Family Tragic

I don’t know about y’all, but I am one of those people who works until I burn out—and then I work some more. It may be due to mental health or my own crazy work ethic, however, it doesn’t really matter what the cause is. It only matters that I’m doing something that hurts me because I think it’ll make things easier in the long run. That’s the crazy thing about burnout, you get it because you thought you were doing so much of the right thing that that same right thing ended up

Today, I present a piece of literary drama that I learned in my Russian literature in translation module I took my final year at university. In 1921, Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote a book called We —you may recognize this title from my banned books post from last week. This is indeed the first book that was banned in 1921 by the Soviet Union. We is a dystopian novel following a man defecting from his society. The society outlined is one of total control, loss of individuality and

Good evening, readers! This post is rather short as I simply wish to implore you on a day such as this to look into the Civil Rights Movement and remember the brave individuals who fought for the equality and justice that they deserved in the first place. Today, I hope you celebrate the strength of such a man and movement. Sincerely, your 21st century poet

Hey y’all! Today, I just wanted to lay out my top 10 TBR classics that I plan on reading this year—whether or not I complete them all is TBA… Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë The Idiot (1869) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Demons (1872) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka A Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens The Count of Monte Cristo (1846) by

Not every banned book is banned by a country, sometimes it’s simply one school in a small town. Other times, it’s most of the world. As for books banned in certain institutions, some I can understand. For instance, I don’t approve of elementary students reading graphic content in novels such as violence and sexual depictions as it is by all means, morally wrong! Therefore, when a book is banned for reasons such as graphic sexual content or violence, I don’t have a problem wi

For this writer, my top 3 (because we all know that I set wayyy more than 3) New Year resolutions for 2026 are as follows: Read 100 books minimum! I set this resolution last year as well, but after hitting my 76th novel in April, I stopped reading for a while… I think I ended around 92 books by December. So close yet so far. This year we will do better as a community of readers! Write something every single day ! I don’t care if it’s a poem, journal, entry, or an entire shor