My first month in Paris

March 15th marked the first month anniversary of my arrival in Paris. The whole time, I had it at the back of my mind to write a post about the experience because everything was so new and intense – from the shattering feelings of uprootedness of the first days through all the baby steps of finding my way around to when I woke up from my self-induced social winter sleep and met twenty new people at four or five events within a single week. Whichever week I’d write this post, it would take on a different coat, tracking my mood that kept changing, so take it with a grain of salt. What I write today, I would phrase differently tomorrow.

Under a cherry tree

The upcoming Valentine’s Day seems like a great excuse for me to finally push myself to publish more of my poetry, so here we go. I wrote this one in the fall of 2021 for a creative writing class held at the Faculty of Education. At the time, the world was opening up already, but the actual covid numbers were skyrocketing, and being careful as I tend to, I was not super comfortable meeting with people quite yet. Continue reading

Christmas magic: Let People

The last time I shared this poem with people was during my reading in Olomouc, in this year’s burning July weather, where the poem - though hopefully not the message - felt so far away. Finally, its true season came. I wish you all the best, and I truly hope that in the next year, you’ll have everything the poem offers and some more.

Halloween vibes: Dream On

Have you ever thought about what messages dreams are bringing to us? Let me tell you a secret. Waking up out of a nightmare… you’re not really waking up. The nightmare continues. That’s because a dream is not an independent entity floating somewhere in a vacuum of dreamland. No, no, no. It’s in your head. And as long as your head stays attached to your neck, it goes with you everywhere. Your dreams are mirrors of your reality. And sometimes, all you can do is run.

Halloween vibes: Four Sisters

Not that we celebrate Halloween where I grew up, but I always liked its mysterious, playful tie to the other side. And this year, in particular, I feel like indulging in some spooky atmosphere, which is why I decided to share some of my more eerie writing. This weekend, it’s a poem called Four Sisters. I wrote it for a poetry class I took at the uni, where the assignment was to write a poem based on a dream you had. I don’t think I need to say much more – you can make your own idea of what my dreams are like. Are dreams… really but a mirror of one’s reality?

The best historical fiction I ever read

I have yet to meet an avid reader who’s not excited to read a book about books. (How many of you are still scarred from a certain swamp-and-horse event in The Neverending Story?) And I’m certainly not a counter-example either. So when I found a book set in Nazi Germany about a little German girl who falls in love with books, I knew I had to have it.

The best sci-fi I ever read

In the past five weeks, I’ve been posting about the best 5 books of my adulthood, and I was (but also wasn’t) surprised that it was all fantasy. I mean, it makes sense since it’s certainly a genre that’s closest to my heart. At the same time, I feel like it gives a wrong impression of me reading only fantasy, which is certainly not true. Right now, e.g., I’m making my way through Zimbardo & Boyd’s The Time Paradox – psych non-fiction that promises to tell me what “time zone [I] live in”. Continue reading