Tuesday

Famous Poets

Aboard at a Ship's Helm by Walt Whitman
Famous British Poets
Famous Philippine Poets
Jose Rizal - Last Poem of Rizal (Mi Ultimo Adios)[ Tagalog English ]
To The Philippines[ English ]
Our Mother Tongue[ English ]
Memories of My town[ English ]
Famous African American Poets
Angelina W. GrimkeTenebris

posted by Shalla at 1:09 PM

Philippine Poetry and Verse


Elbina Batala

Heart
There Is No Silence

Cirilo F. Bautista

Pedagogic
Craftsmanship

Joan Bondoc

Ngarag

Carlene Sobrino Bonniver

After the Dance
Surface Tension

*read more

posted by Shalla at 12:55 PM

Lord George Gordon Byron--Shalla's Fave Poet


Lord George Gordon Byron (1788-1824) was as famous in his lifetime for his personality cult as for his poetry.

He created the concept of the 'Byronic hero' - a defiant, melancholy young man, brooding on some mysterious, unforgivable event in his past. Byron's influence on European poetry, music, novel, opera, and painting has been immense, although the poet was widely condemned on moral grounds by his contemporaries. George Gordon, Lord Byron, was the son of Captain John Byron, and Catherine Gordon.

He was born with a club-foot and became extreme sensitivity about his lameness. Byron spent his early childhood years in poor surroundings in Aberdeen, where he was educated until he was ten. After he inherited the title and property of his great-uncle in 1798, he went on to Dulwich, Harrow, and Cambridge, where he piled up debts and aroused alarm with bisexual love affairs.

*read more


Poetry

A Spirit Passed Before Me
Churchill's GraveDarkness
Epistle to Augusta
Lines Inscribed Upon a Cup Formed From a Skull
Lines Written Beneath an Elm in the Churchyard of Harrow
Lines, On Hearing That Lady Byron Was Ill
Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty's Bloom
On Chillon
On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year


She Walks in Beauty


So, We'll Go No More a Roving


SolitudeStanzas For Music
Stanzas To the Po
Stanzas Written on the Road Between Florence and Pisa
The Destruction of Sennacherib
To Thomas Moore
To Thyrza: And Thou Art Dead
When We Two Parted
Written After Swimming from Sestos to Abydos

posted by Shalla at 12:30 PM

Some commercials are like poetry, they make us feel...



Some commercials are like poetry, they make us feel...

--Shalla de Guzman

The Apprentice reminded me of this when they did the TV commercial for Lamborghini .

Commercial from The Apprentice
Power
Envy
Prestige
Decadence
Adrenalin
Passion
Ego Driven
Lamborghini
Can you handle it?
Are you in control?
Are you worthy?
Are you intimidated?
Do you need permission?
Prove it.
"At the end of the day, it’s about making the consumer feel something. For the women, when I saw the footage, my heart beat a little faster." --Lamborghini Executive
********
And did you see the latest with Wyclef Jean?
Genius, musical genius.

posted by Shalla at 10:05 AM

Studying Great Openings

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Perennial Classics)by Milan Kundera

The idea of eternal return is a mysterious one, and Nietzsche has often perplexed other philosophers with it: to think that everything recurs as we once experience it, and that the recurrence itself recurs ad infinitum! What does this mad myth signify?

Putting it negatively, the myth of eternal return states that a life which disappears once and for all, which does not return, is like a shadow, without weight, dead in advance, and whether it was horrible, beautiful, or sublime, its horror, sublimity, and beauty mean nothing. We need take no more note of it than that of a war between two African kingdoms in the fourteenth century, a war that altered nothing in the destiny of the world, even if a hundred thousand blacks perished in excruciating torment.

Will the war between two African kingdoms in the fourth century itself be altered if it recurs again and again, in eternal return?

Dangerous Beauty

Venice, 1583 – the richest, most decadent city in Europe.
Its women were treated like property – few even knew how to read.

But there were some who enjoyed a different fate…

The following story is true…


We danced our youth in a dreamed up city, Venice, paradise, proud and pretty
We lived for love and lust and beauty Pleasure then our only duty
Floating then ‘twixt heaven and earth And drunk on plenty’s blessed mirth
We thought ourselves eternal then Our glory sealed by God’s own pen But paradise we founnd is always frail Against man’s fear will always fail.

God made sin that we might know his mercy.

I find myself within his eyes
I long for more myself to know
He hears, it seems, my silent cries
And makes my heart my reason’s foe
How can this be, to love so quickly?
“Love does now wait,” is his reply
What magic weaves his touch to trick me?
How can I now my love deny?

posted by Shalla at 8:37 AM

I remember Milan Kundera and I remember I am a Poet

Last night, I started with 2nd phase revisions and realize my manuscript must shine its depth. Let it burst into the hearts and minds of readers. Yes, today my writing voice fills with poetry.

I organized over a dozen books of fiction, poetry and references; also scripts and transcripts of movies and tv shows.

The Unbearable Lightness of Being (Perennial Classics)by Milan Kundera

posted by Shalla at 8:21 AM

Writing Poetry

posted by Shalla at 8:00 AM

Sunday

Shalla Finishes 1st Round of Editing

******* Time to celebrate! *******
Party! Party! Party!
Congrats SHALLA!
As you may know, I read SELF EDITING FOR FICTION WRITERS: How to Edit Yourself Into Print and about 4 weeks ago, started using it on my manuscript.

Well, just finished and like to celebrate. This is Round #1, getting the "fat" out, extraneous stuff, repeats, and let the reader's imagination fill in some of the details.

Ie.

"Ok, huge news! Where's everybody?!" Jack says, jumping around, twisting his waist back and forth. "Are you the only one here?"

Usually, it's best to just leave Jack says and take out jumping around, twisting his waist back and forth

(although in this particular case, I'll probably leave the action info, but take out too much of it, depending of course on the rhythm of the scene, ie. a fast action scene = less beats )
Shalla's Round #2? Punching Up scenes
Ie. dramatic scenes = make more dramatic
romantic scenes = make more romantic
funny scenes = put funnier lines, always true to character
Stir reader's emotions, entertain, free their imaginations, connect readers to my words, my story, my scenes

posted by Shalla at 2:55 AM