Okay, let me explain it better. I have watched most of Studio Ghibli’s movies and I like all of them, but my favorite is Ponyo (the first one I watched). I have also watched a bunch of K-dramas, but the one with the biggest place in my heart is the one that started my obsession, Boys Over Flowers. And so on with a lot of things.

So, I have a theory that our favorite things tend to be our favorites not because we consider them “the best” in their category, but because we have an emotional attachment to them. Most of the time it is nostalgia.

When it comes to poetry, the first poem I read (and therefore my favorite) was this one by e.e.cummings. I was thinking about it this morning and felt so nostalgic! I remember my little self of twelve years ago trying to memorize every line. I hope you like it too.

Also, I checked the grammar and spelling and everything in this poem is just as he wrote it. (Just making sure you don’t think I butchered it, haha).

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands

e.e.cummings

The post An e.e.cummings poem appeared first on Pretty Geekery.

I normally try to give impartial opinions, but I feel like it’s my duty to tell the world how bad this book was for me. I’m warning you!

First of all, I got this book as a gift from a dear book lover friend and I fell in love with its cover and name.*  I got into it without reading anything about it. And soon discovered that this was not a fantasy poetry book as the name suggested. (That would have been too cool).

Click the image to buy it on Amazon, though I wouldn’t buy it if I were you. (I might get a small commission, but the price is the same for you :D).

The “princess’ is actually the author herself. And the book is divided into the three main stages of her life:

1. The Princess: Her childhood and teenage years. She narrates (through poems) how she fell trapped inside “a tower” because of her toxic group of friends, abusive boyfriend and sad family history.
2. The Damsel: How she started to cut off the bad relationships in her life and got more self-confidence. Her poems on this section are basically hate letters towards the people who treated her badly.
3. The Queen: This is where she turns into the self-confidence / self-love queen and starts giving advice (a.k.a preaching).

*I’m so sorry I didn’t like it, Mika! It looked so good!

(I’m going to start with the things I disliked because this book deserves that special treatment.)

• The poems didn’t feel like poems at all. Like 99% of them were just

normal

phrases but

in

separate

lines.

It seems like hitting Enter too often is #aesthetic and therefore poetry. Let me give you some examples from the book:

food

is

not

the

enemy.

– society is

and

I have

so much love

to give,

but no one

ever wants

it.

-a cup overfilled

I’m not saying that these phrases lack meaning, I think they are okay statements. But they don’t feel like poetry. They are not beautiful and the words don’t seem like they were chosen carefully. But maybe I’m just used to older or more mainstream poetry and I don’t understand modern poems.

• It was trite and full of emo/angsty sayings. For example, one poem was just a blank page and the title was “silence has always been my loudest scream”. Maybe as a teenager I would have liked that quote, but now it just makes me roll my eyes. In other ‘poems’ the author is just throwing shade at people (they probably deserve it, but I’m really not interested in her personal life and her bullies). Here’s a perfect example of shade throwing:

“if you don’t want to end up in someone else’s poem, then maybe you should start treating people better for a change. – an unapologetic poet”.

• The most unoriginal realizations I’ve ever read. It felt like reading a compilation of average teenager scribbles. They were just things like “It’s fine if you like to eat food” and “Don’t stay in abusive relationships“. And phrases about having “so much love to give” and “My mom is rude but I love her anyway”.  Are they true statements? Yes. Relatable? Of course. But also really boring. They are all good messages but they are presented as if they were incredibly profound thoughts. Especially in “the queen” section where the author almost literally writes these lines and calls them poems.

• It’s about self love. Even if it’s trite and unoriginal, this book has a good message. Most of the poems are about loving yourself, accepting yourself, getting out of abusive relationships and being comfortable in your own body. The author talks (through “poems”) about the people who bullied her, the boyfriend who treated her badly and the mother who emotionally abused her. Until the day she decided to leave those relationships and get out of the ‘tower’ where she was a prisoner.

• The author loves books and randomly talks about it. There are a some poems scattered around the book on this subject. And I think those were the best ones.

ah, life

the thing

that happens

to us

while we’re off

somewhere else

blowing on

dandelions

& wishing

ourselves into

the pages of

our favorite

fairy tales.

I also loved the book dedication. It was probably my favorite part of the book.

for the boy who lived.

thank you for inspiring me to be

the girl who survived.

you may have

a lighting bolt

to show for it

but my body is a

lighting storm.

• You feel trapped in a relationship and want to read about someone who got out of one (but here’s a list with better book alternatives).
• You want to feel inspired to be more self-loving (but there are also better options for this).
• You like to read Tumblr poetry.
• You think silence has always been your loudest scream.
• You want to have a book with a pretty cover for #bookstagram

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