By Taylor Louise | @taylor_louisem
Mark Lee, arguably the least tech-savy of the Neos, finally opened his personal Instagram account on January 26th, 2021. It took many Seasonies hours to follow him, with fans going wild for his new account, and Instagram glitching because of the influx of followers. With the hope of increased interaction, he was active from the get-go, posting “Regular” content for his fans and frequently going live to talk to NCTzens. Mark’s Instagram currently consists of cute selfies, fashion pics, but most noticeably, his amazing poems.
It’s nothing new to NCTzens that Mark enjoys expressing himself through writing. The NCT discography is full of lyrics written by him, and he has previously mentioned that he dreamt of being an author when he was younger (with English being one of his favorite subjects at school). However, when Mark posted his first poem, it was far more personal to Seasonies than just an Instagram post. His poems collected incredibly emotive responses and gave many fans the confidence to write their own literary works, and even share them with us. Following in Mark’s footsteps, these NCTzens have been kind enough to share their work with us, and so we’d like to, proudly, share it with the rest of Ncity.
Handle: @Chena127
Pronouns: She/her
Bias: Mark, Haechan and Jisung
How long have you been writing poetry: Four years
What inspired you to start writing: “I began to write poetry in the beginning in high school and throughout, to express myself in a healthy and straight forward way about my struggles and feelings. I am a quiet and shy person in general, but with poetry, I am able to open up to the world in an artistic way.”
What inspired this poem: “Straight Lies is a poem, with a villanelle-like structure, about the experience of an ex-“Straight A’s” student with anxiety. The poem, narrated by anxiety itself, mocks the student with “lies” and then proceeds to falsely comfort the student, like a mother to a child. This represents the feeling of superiority that anxiety and mental struggles has on individuals.”
Poem title: Straight Lies
Poem:
Handle: @iamjoppin
Pronouns: She/her
Bias: Jaehyun
How long have you been writing poetry: Roughly since high School
What Inspired you to start writing: “It has just always been a way for me to get out feelings and thoughts I’m too cautious to speak openly about with others. I can be really guarded when it comes to expressing how I feel. So, poetry and writing, in general, is a way for me to get it out of my system and make those thoughts tangible.”
What inspired this poem: “Love and Loneliness. This is actually a starting point for, what I hope to be, a longer work or collection.”
Poem title: Love Make
Poem:
Handle: @brazilianctzen1
Pronouns: She/her
Bias: Doyoung, Xiaojun, Renjun and Jisung
How long have you been writing poetry: Roughly a year ago, in 2020
What Inspired you to start writing: “A friend… told me to start writing too, as a way of organizing and recording my feelings somewhere, and so I did. I started a diary on my phone and ended up writing two poems (that, I must say, sound much better in Portuguese). Also, I must mention this friend helped me to make the English version of the poem, so I need to give him a shout out; Luiz, thank you!”
What inspired this poem: “This poem was written when I had a sudden need for creativity and a sudden need to put my feelings out. I wrote it without thinking; seriously, the words would just come, and I would just write them. It’s really personal and is basically about some questions that come to my head from time to time; questions like ‘Why can’t I live like everyone else?’.”
Poem title: Questions
Poem:
Handle: @endtostartist
Pronouns: She/her
Bias: Taeyong
How long have you been writing poetry: Roughly ten years, since middle school.
What Inspired you to start writing: “I started writing it because I deeply fell in love with reading at that time, and it inspired me to want to write my own creations with their own worlds and meaning. Poetry was one of the first forms I tried.”
What inspired this poem: “I’ve always wanted to create something out of titles. Being a fan of Taeyong, I thought it’d be a perfect opportunity for me to use the titles of his features and individual projects as a way to show his artistic journey. I figured it’d be a great dedication to that growth, which is what I love portraying through my own creativity as a fan.”
Poem title: Switch On
Poem:
A big thank you to the Ncity authors that have shared their poems with us. If you have any poems that you’d lie to share, please make sure to tag us on our socials @ncity_mag and use the hashtag #EnVi.
Enjoyed reading this? Check out how NCTzens took over Twitter Spaces!
