Tag: poet

“The Hill We Climb” out today

John GuillenLeave a comment

During the inauguration of President Joe Biden Amanda Gorman just about stunned all of us with her inaugural poem. It was the first time (myself included) many had heard her name. As announced shortly after her reading, her inaugural poem is now available in book form today. Talking to someone last night I realized I don’t read poetry. But there’s no specific reason why I don’t. Amanda may just change that when a collection of her poems released later this year.

Do you have a favorite poet or poetry collection?

Amanda Gorman is About to Take Over

John GuillenLeave a comment

I wrote last week about Amanda Gorman’s extraordinary inaugural poem. It seems every few hours she’s making more moves.

In March her inaugural poem will be published with an initial printing of one million copies. In September a collection of her poems (along with her inaugural poem) will be published, also with an initial printing of one million copies. She recently signed with IMG Models and will be taking part in the Super Bowl festivities in less than two weeks.

In any scenario all of this would be such phenomenal news, but I know I’m not the only one ecstatic that all these things are happening for a young African-American woman. Amanda Gorman isn’t going anywhere any time soon. And maybe her prediction of one day running for president (she told Hillary Clinton she would run in 2036) isn’t so far off. I’m excited to see what comes next.

You HAVE to Hear Amanda Gorman at the Inauguration

John GuillenLeave a comment

Yesterday a new president was inaugurated in the US. Though it lacked many of the traditional festivities due to the pandemic, it was still a memorable day.

But Amanda Gorman may have stolen the show. She’s the national youth poet laureate and recited an original poem at the inauguration. No description I provide will do her words any justice. But I will say her words and her exceptional performance once again prove what so many have said in recent years. Words matter. And for years and decades to come, her words will stay with so many among us. Here’s the full poem. I hope you’ll take a minute to listen.

She also has a forthcoming poetry collection due to release in September, which you find here.

January: A Review

John Guillen15 Comments

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?

 

Another Month Gone

John Guillen16 Comments

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

John Guillen12 Comments

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?

August is Over, Fall is Near

John Guillen10 Comments

Whew. August is over. Can’t say it was better or worse than any other recent August, but it wasn’t so bad. And some rather interesting things happened along the way. But as always, first with some stats. Previous record in parenthesis.

Posts: 31 (31)

Likes: 793 (837)

Comments: 936 (2121)

Followers: 3205

Books Read: 1 (4)

Poems: 0 (2)

YouTube Videos: 1 (3)

Nothing too spectacular to discuss here. It wasn’t really too bad at all. But it could have been much better. But there were some days that I just didn’t feel like getting on WordPress. I actually did not read a single blog post all last week, I just didn’t feel like it. And I was sleepy. But I’m not going to “catch up” as other bloggers might do. No one writes posts specifically for me to read. I’m sure everyone is just fine with or without me reading their stuff. But I’ll be better this week. I already have been.

The one thing I will say is that I did actually write a poem for the first time in months. And I think it was pretty decent. But it’s not for the blog and I won’t be revealing why I wrote it in the first place, just that I did.

Last thing before I get into some posts. I made the decision about halfway through the month not to make any more videos until September. It was mostly a time thing. I’m not stopping completely. Making videos is actually pretty fun for me.

Now for some posts.

Top Post

Killing Main Characters

Favorite Post

Day 1 at Half Price Books is Done!

Post you may Have Missed

Auto buy Authors

There aren’t too many firsts once you’ve been blogging steadily for more than two years, but something happened for the first time this month that hasn’t happened before. The top post of the month wasn’t written by me. It was written by Amy. I’m calling it luck. Her top post had only four more views than mine. Oh well. I guess it’s finally happened. Someone has posted on my blog and become more popular than me. *sigh* It actually very nearly happened earlier this year when I had my week of guest posts, but I was able to come out victorious. Ha!

And I haven’t forgotten that I started working at Half Price Books about halfway through the month! It’s been fun. And I think I’ll be getting a few more books tomorrow after my shift. I think. I’ve learned plenty and still have more than half of my training left.

So that’s it. My August in a nutshell. Plenty of sleep. New job. And the seventh consecutive month of blogging everyday. Oh, and I made an Instagram account! How was yours?

On this day in 2014 I published The Reader in Me Part II.

 

I’m Glad You’re Finally Over, April

John Guillen7 Comments

April reminded me of months from the middle of last year in which I operated the blog exactly the same as I’d done before, and it just wasn’t producing as well as I’d like. This isn’t me complaining, this is a simple fact. I have no idea why, but April was the first month that actually went down in terms of site views compared to the same month in 2014. Which is going to be even worse because May is also going to see a decline in site views compared to last year. How do I know that? Because May of last year still holds the record for most views in a calendar month. BUT all of that is fine because there were some positives to come out of the month. Let’s take a look. As always, the previous record will be in parenthesis.

Posts: 30 (31)

Likes: 765 (837)

Comments: 967 (2121)

Followers: 2712

Books Read: 0 (4) <- this is only for 2015.

Poems Posted: 1 (2) <- same as above.

Everything looks pretty normal from afar, but this was actually the second best month ever in terms of Likes. And it was the best month of 2015 for comments. I was on a pace to finally hit a thousand comments again for most of the month, but ultimately fell just short. With the extra day coming in May I fully expect to hit that number.

My reading is still stuck and I’ve hesitated to post any new poems because WordPress hasn’t been letting me format the text in those particular posts to my liking and each time I post one it’s just a big hassle that I don’t want to deal with. Here are some posts:

Top Post

I’m Going on Vacation!

Favorite Post

Stop Eating While Reading

Post you may Have Missed

If you Could Meet one Author, who Would it be?

Guys, I know I fooled a number of you with my vacation post. So now this is me telling you that it was indeed all a joke for April Fool’s Day. It’s been the top post of the month for every single day of April. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen before. Anyway, y’all were nice about it and I decided to let it play out. Eh. I’m not sorry. It was all in fun and no one got hurt.

So that’s it! My month of blogging in a nutshell. Tell me about yours, please.

On this day in 2014 I published An Open Invitation. Guys, I’d highly recommend taking a look at the posts I mention in this section this month because there has to be a reason last May was so much better than any other month. Perhaps the posts were just better.