Take in as much as you can; be open to whatever the poem has to offer. Many readers start with a quick reading of the whole poem to get an overall impression. But then they go back to take in important details. They linger over a key line. They weigh the impact if a key image. They puzzle over apparent contradictions.

Get Your Bearing

Who is speaking in the poem? What is the situation or occasion? What seems to be the agenda? For instance, are we looking at a scene from the world of nature? Are we witnessing a confrontation between parent and child? Is a lover talking to the beloved?

Respond to the Poem as a Whole

Try to get a sense of its overall pattern. Look for key words or phrases that echo in the poem. Look at how the poem as a whole takes shape. For instance, does it move from now to then (and then perhaps back again to now)? Does it play off two different ways of looking at our world? Does it set up polarities – for instance, does it move from innocence to experience? Does it travel between city life and nature?

Get into the Spirit of the Poem

We are disappointed when someone reading a poem aloud reads without expression, without feeling. We want the reader’s face, gestures, and body language to act out the mood, the rhythm, or the overall shape of the poem. Even when reading silently, a receptive reader may show by nods and frowns and gestures that the poem is being experienced, acted out, in the reader’s mind.

Be ready for a Personal Response

We do not read poetry in order to analyze poems that leave us cold. Writing poetry is an act of faith assuming that the poet’s observations and experiences will find an echo in the experience of the reader. A poem that is reprinted and reread time and again has touched a chord in many different readers. To be moved by a poem about the loss of a father, we need not have lost a father ourselves, but the poem may remind us of the loss of somebody or something dear to us.

Source: Unknown 

Beware of scams

The FBI urges people who are looking for ways to help with disasters relief to be wary of solicitations that could be from scam artists.

“Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organization or a good cause,” the FBI said, in passing along these tips:

- Ignore unsolicited e-mails, and do not click on links within those messages.

- Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.

- Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files, because the files may contain computer viruses. Open attachments only from known senders.

- Decline to give personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions.

- Make contributions directly to known organizations, rather than relying on others who claim in e-mails that they will channel the donation to established groups.

Anyone who has received an e-mail referencing the above information or anyone who may have been a victim of this or a similar incident should notify the IC3 (Internet Crime Complaint Center) via www.ic3.gov.

Organizations 

Baptist World Aid

Baptist World Aid is the compassionate arm of the Baptist World Alliance, supporting those in need irrespective of tribe, caste, color or religion.

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee

Christian World Relief is a respected Christian outreach and humanitarian relief organization sending emergency life-saving food, medicine, shelter and other support with prayers to innocent children worldwide and in America.

ChristianWorldRelief.org

Christian World Relief is a respected Christian outreach and humanitarian relief organization sending emergency life-saving food, medicine

ChurchWorldService.org

Church World Service works with partners to eradicate hunger and poverty and to promote peace and justice around the world.

Compassion.com

Compassion International is a Christian charity organization dedicated to releasing children from poverty.

ExileInternational.org

Exile International exists to instill hope, healing, and love to Africa’s war-affected children and former child soldiers through art and expressive trauma therapy.

Mennonite Disaster Service

Mennonite Disaster Service is a volunteer network through which various constituencies of the Anabaptist church can respond to those affected by disasters in Canada and the United States.

SalvationArmy.org

The Salvation Army is one of the largest social care providers in the World. There are social programs running in almost every country we operate in.

SamaritansPurse.org

Samaritan’s Purse is an International Christian relief and evangelism organization provides spiritual and physical aid to victims of war, poverty, natural disaster, and disease.

WorldVision.org

World Vision is an international aid Christian humanitarian organization, World Vision works in nearly 100 countries around the globe, combating the root causes of poverty and responding quickly when disaster strikes.

Happy New Year 2012!
Isaias D’Oleo

Well, Christmas is definitely here! I’d like to wish everyone a happy and wonderful Merry Christmas filled with so many memorable moments along with your family and friends. Have a special time!

Sending lots of blessing’s, ID

Here is the Picasa Album
Here is the Flickr Album
Here is info about Costa Rica on Wikipedia

For example, Walter Elias Disney (aka Walt Disney) is known as one of the most influential and innovative figures in the field of family entertainment. Nevertheless, before he became a worldwide figure, he drew ads for newspapers, magazines, and movie theaters to earn money. Many people saw his talent, but never acknowledged his dream to become a cartoonist until many years later, after he had taken the initiative to excel his talent through training. In his heart, he had a vision for what had not yet been done and he did it. I’m sure there were times when he wondered if it was worth it or if it would even work out in the end, but the important thing was he tried and as we all know he succeeded eventually making Walt Disney Productions a billion dollar industry.

Walt was an entrepreneur. He saw what needed to be changed and he changed it. We can learn a lot from people like him, even if you don’t necessarily have a business, industry or corporation in mind. There are always things that you can do differently and better to improve your life and your world. If you do the best with what you have, God will provide the rest. I encourage you today to think outside of the box, practice determination, and never let anyone or anything stop you from accomplishing your dreams.

 Photo credit: Ollie O’Brien

—Written by Joy Bailey. Used by permission.

It’s so important using your life and your giftings to the fullest extent possible. However, for some of you, that may not seem practical for two reasons. First, you probably don’t have time, money or enough motivation. Second, you don’t know what your giftings are or how to use them. I’m going to shine some light on both these reasons by asking you one simple question… Do you know who you are?

I’m not asking what your good at or what you do for a living. I’m asking do you know the deep innermost things that make up who you are? If you answered no, don’t feel bad. There are millions of people all across the world who have the same answer and I used to be one of them. For instance, I spent a lot of time of my life, even up into my high school years, trying to figure out what I wanted to do or accomplish in life. By the time I was sixteen, I had people either trying to choose for me by listing my good qualities and placing them into careers. Others were telling me to just pick one already! But regardless of what people said, I decided I was not going to settle. It was one year later that I finally gave up and asked God to show me who I was and what I was created to do. He then reminded me of my love of stories, especially movies, and said just one word to me and that word was “Screenwriter.” Now, I was never good at literature. In fact, there was a time when I could not even spell literature! So, it was certainly not going to be my first choice for a career. However, the day I began to write my first story was the day I realized my gift, and from there, I realized who I really was and what I was really made for. Let me tell you that my gifting was nothing close to what anyone had recommended for me. What I want you to take from all this is that the only way to know who you are is to know the gifting that is inside of you, and the only way to know the gifting that is inside of you, is just to find it on purpose. Take in mind when God said “Screenwriter.” I could have given a million reasons why it wasn’t right for me, but I didn’t; instead I took the time to try it. Don’t let people, money, time, and lack of motivation stop you from finding your purpose. Take authority over your life by taking action. It is never too late to begin. God did not give you a life so that you could just live it; he gave you a life so that you could enjoy it by doing the things you love! Another thing, don’t give up on your gifting. You know how the saying goes “when at first you don’t succeed, try again.” Just because it’s a gift doesn’t mean it’s going to be perfect on the first try, it takes a lot of patience and practice. I encourage you today to find out who you are. Don’t wait until tomorrow because you never know what tomorrow will bring. Do not settle, succeed! Your life is precious; don’t let it go to waste. The choice is up to you!

—Written by Joy Bailey. Used by permission.  

The play The Night of the Iguana written by American author Tennessee Williams portrays some interesting themes for today’s society, such as the cultural differences in America, the high-class society power, and the consequences of changing good attitudes by the new ones based on materialism and spiritual decay. In this story, the author shows some themes besides the idea of visiting a run-down hotel in the Mexico hills. By means of some mechanisms such as irony and characters’ discourse, Williams reveals how the American society – represented mainly by the Rev. Lawrence Shannon – controls people’s lives transforming not only their worldviews but also changing their feelings toward society.

To understand a thematic analysis in a story is important to have a good grasp of the situation in which it is developed. This play happens in 1940 in a hotel called the Costa Verde in Puerto Barrio, Mexico. Some tourists – Mr. Shannon, among others – visit this hotel to rest. There, this character has a series of adventures that make readers to understand and discover what kind of person Rev. Shannon really is – a selfish man, a womanizer, a smoker, and a drinker. The play ends with an unclear and unforeseen ending; however, this one allows the author suggests that his story can be interpreted according to their readers’ experiences and cultural backgrounds without misinterpreting its basic plot.

The author uses an unclear and ambiguous ending to express that the meaning of his story can be adapted to their readers’ circumstances without losing its main meaning.

One of the literary  mechanisms used by Williams in his work to reveal how the Mexicans are controlled by the Americans is the use of secondary discourses, which are found on Pedro and Pancho’s speeches. The Cambridge Dictionary of American English defines discourse as “a thoughtful spoken or written discussion of a subject.” (243). Using characters’ discourse, Tennessee Williams gives readers the opportunity to capture a complex world full of divergences, sensations, and feelings. For instance, through Pedro’s actions, an employee of the hotel, who only speaks Spanish, the author suggests that language is way of alienation between the low-class society and the higher one. Pedro’s speech is a naïve and childish discourse with some pronunciation and reception mistakes of the Spanish language. In addition, it is important to point out that from the beginning of the short story, we can see that Pedro and Pancho were boys with very poor education. Besides, the American society – represented in this time by Maxine – had influenced them badly on their behaviors. Thus, the American society changed their lines of reasoning and their attitudes toward other human beings. As it’s  noticed in Act Two, Pedro and Pancho are victims of the American oppression. Despite their efforts to do their work well, they will never reach a better level in the society due to their nationality and their culture.

As it was claimed above, irony also plays a relevant role in the development of Williams’ play. The Cambridge Dictionary of American English defines irony as “a different or opposite result from what is expected.” (463). Therefore, the author uses the mechanism of irony to put his message across very well about the consequences of choosing the easier way to satisfy human beings’ needs. For example, the first ironic situation is found when Shannon asks Maxine a cold beer instead of a rum-coco. This is an incongruous situation because Mr. Shannon is part of the Catholic priests, and according to this religion, drinking alcohol is bad and a sin. The author uses this example to present his suggestion of how the American society changes people’s worldviews. Thus, Shannon’s interest – at least indirectly – is to enjoy his life while he could without thinking in the traditional rules he had been accustomed to. He uses his power as a priest to do everything he wants without give reasons. In this case, it is good to question if Shannon’s behavior was influenced by the American society’s decay? To answer this important question, it is necessary to look for another ironic situation in this short story, and this one is found when Shannon committed fornication with a girl instead of helping her to pray in the church. This situation happened because of his lust and spiritual decay. According to him, there was a natural attraction in that moment; however, that was the result of continuous negative thoughts. Now, what do people expect from a catholic priest if a girl asks him to help her to pray? Definitely, it’s not what Mr. Shannon did to her. These two examples showed that Mr. Shannon was really influenced by society’s decay, even though such influence was only the beginning.

The short analysis made here of The Night of the Iguana shows that Tennessee Williams uses irony and characters’ discourse to explain his message about power and spiritual decay. As a result, the main message in this play is that power isn’t a means to let licentiousness; on the contrary, it is a way to reinforce values that unite people in order to make a society stronger. In that sense, modern societies are morally obligated to help the less fortunate and should take part in policymaking to fight not only corruption or drug deals, for instance, but the lack of  a well-built moral standards. The good news are we can change that situation and it all starts with you and me!

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have. Love doesn’t strut, doesn’t have a swelled head, doesn’t force itself on others, isn’t always “me first, doesn’t fly off the handle, doesn’t keep score of the sins of others, doesn’t revel when others grovel, takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, puts up with anything, trusts God always, always looks for the best, never looks back, but keeps going to the end. Love never dies.

When we see through / Other people’s eyes, / Our reality changes; / Our perspective of living improves / Because we see something / That we have never seen before. / When we see through / Other people’s eyes, / Our world disappears / To look beyond borders. / Our idea of the world as / We know it erases. / When we see through / Other people’s eyes, / We see more than we thought; / We see every man, / Every woman / With dignity. / When we see through / Other people’s eyes, / We meet everyone’s need / Without asking why / Because we see something / That we have never seen before. / When we see through / Other people’s eyes, / We learn to love each other; / When we see through / Other people’s eyes, / We learn to appreciate one another.

—Poem from the collection Soul Tattoo.

Independent authors are those people who have talent for writing, but they do not have a contract yet. That’s it! If you pay attention, you can find very talented music artists without a contract out there; however, that doesn’t mean they are not artists. If these independent artists recorded an album, is that album bad because it wasn’t recorded by an established recording house? Of course not! So, the fact that a traditional publishing house does not give an author a contract for his/her book does not mean s/he is a bad writer, or a self-published author, if this writer eventually published a book through modern platforms. In this sense, I do make the difference between those companies who want to steal authors’ money and those platforms that make money from sales.

I think that Kindle, Nook or any eBook reader are really platforms instead of vanity presses, as many traditional authors used to think. To me, vanity presses have (mis)used digital platforms to do their “businesses” so that Print-on-Demand or Kindle technology is not bad per se; they are just a means for authors’ work. This has allowed me to open my mind to understand that the difference between a vanity author vs. an independent author (or traditional author too) is that talent was there before publishing.

I consider that in order to be an independent author, a writer needs: a) to have talent before publishing any work, and b) to have a writing career (writing articles, short stories, poems, etc. for a local audience). If we analyze this, vanity authors write for luck or to get money easily but they usually don’t have talent for writing and usually don’t have an audience. Nonetheless, an independent author could probably get a contract for his/her work sooner or later because the talent is there, but not everybody knows that. For all these reasons, I have always believed in the book, and not in the publishing system. It does not matter if an author publishes her/his work through a publishing house or not, the important thing is just the content of that book.

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” —Martin Luther King

I found this quote this week and made me think about the way we usually handle our life and daily routines. We are frequently proved when we’re in difficulties and when things don’t go well.  The truth is that staying in a comfort zone is cool but we won’t grow up to be fully mature people until we deal with life at times of challenge and awkward moments. If we face the challenges in our life and overcome them successfully, then the outer me and the inner me will grow.

They told me about Poetry
- Definitions, characteristics.
Thousands of pages to read.
They made me memorize
Non-sense verses;
They made me recite
Millions of incompressible words.
Poetry sounded me
Like a dull language.
Notwithstanding all this,
Never told me that Poetry
Was just the best way
To talk to my heart;
Never told me that Poetry
Was just the language
Of art and silence.

—Poem from the collection Soul Tattoo.

“When you fall in love, it is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake, and then it subsides. And when it subsides, you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots are become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement (…) Love itself is what is left over, when being in love has burned away…”

(Iannis to Pelagia) —From the movie Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

“You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.”

—F. Scott Fitzgerald

If someday stars do not appear / And you do not see the sky clear / Don’t be sad, just be glad / I’ll be with you. / If someday your friends go away / And your world goes down in every way / Don’t be sad, just be glad / I’ll take care of you. / If someday you lost your shelter / And cry, just remember / Don’t be sad, just be glad / You’re the only one in my heart.

—Poem from the collection Unsaid Words of My Life. 

On a deeper reading in Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, we will discover that these plays have one theme in common, and this one is the way someone can control another person’s life transforming their external appearance and feelings toward society.

First of all, I’m going to analyze some aspects in Nora’s life to support this affirmation. At the beginning of A Doll’s House, Nora is characterized by being a woman with a naïve and childish personality. She, like a soldier, is under command by another person’s orders – her husband Torvald.

Nora: No, how can you think of such a thing?
Helmer: Not a tiny little digression into a pastry shop?
Nora: No, Torvald, I promise –
Helmer: Not just a wee jam tart?
Nora: Certainly not.
Helmer: Not a little nibble at a macaroon?
Nora: No, Thorvald – I promise you, honestly –
Helmer: There, there. I was only joking.
Nora: You know I could never act against your wishes.
Helmer: Of course not […]
[A Doll's House, Act I]

Nora obeys her husband by duty in the same way children obey their parents. For her, Torvarld is like another father as he treats her like a “doll.” He has changed Nora’s life making her economically, socially, and psychologically a dependent woman. As a result of his actions, Nora cannot make her own decisions without before talking about them with her husband. Torvarld controls her absolutely in everything she does, especially the way she should spend money. He has transformed his wife in someone whom he can totally control – a doll, someone who does not have own feelings.

At the end of the play, Nora abandons her old life and decides to begin a new one without submission or obedience; she wants to find her real feelings and express herself freely. This situation allows readers to comprehend what Torvarld did with Nora’s life and as result, appreciate the unexpressed feelings she had. This is revealed by the words Nora said when she decided to leave her family and husband.

Nora: I must stand on my own feet if I am to find out the truth about myself and about life. So I can’t go on living here with you any longer.
Helmer: Nora, Nora!
Nora: I’m leaving you now, at once. Christine will put me up for tonight –
Helmer: You’re out of your mind! You can’t do this! I forbid you!
Nora: It’s no use your trying to forbid me any more. I shall take with me nothing but what is mine. I don’t want anything from you, now or ever.
[A Doll's House, Act III]

As we read, the changes Nora had when she left home are clear. Before this situation, Nora was like a child, needed of protection and care. Now, she wants to be independent from everything and live far from the person who spent years along her and made her to change.

Taking this into consideration, I’m sure that Pygmalion’s myth was present in this play, at least implicitly. Pygmalion was a sculptor who made a statue and later he saw it with life; in this case, Torvarld represented this figure in A Doll’s House, and Nora his sculpture. Torvarld did not know Nora’s real personality until almost at the end of the play when Nora’s secrets and her real feelings toward her husband are revealed. Only in this situation, Torvarld saw his wife acting by herself. He destroyed her wife’s soul making her dependent from him. In this sense, Nora was the way that needed Torvarld to extend his feelings to another person.

Something similar happened to Eliza Doolittle with her Phonetics teacher, Mr. Higgins in Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Making a comparison of Eliza’s life with Nora, we realize that they had many things in common; both Eliza and Nora are young, dependent, and in some way, they act like children at the beginning of the play. However, inside these women’s souls, they are looking for freedom and being themselves.

Now, we are going to point out some interesting aspects from Eliza’s life. At the beginning of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, Eliza was a simple flower-girl. Her wishes of becoming a lady and having a flower shop were strong. Initially, Eliza was like a little girl; her immaturity and naïvety carried her to be a dependent girl from her teacher, Mr. Henry Higgins.

Pickering: what is it you want, my girl?
The Flower Girl: I want to be a lady in a flower shop stead of selling at the corner of Tottenham Court Road. But they won’t take me unless I can talk more genteel. He said he could teach me. Well, here I am ready to pay him – not asking any favor– and the treats me as if I was dirt.
[Pygmalion, Act I]

Eliza did not know that she would be like a doll on Mr. Higgins’ hands. He would teach Eliza how to speak and use English grammar correctly. In this way, the professor will use his power to control totally Eliza’s life. And it’s amazing that this was exactly what happened. In the same way Pygmalion made his sculpture, controlling not only the big details but also the little ones, Mr. Higgins began to change Eliza’s speech. But this was only the beginning… He also transformed some Eliza’s ideas related with society and women’s role in it. Eliza learned new speech patterns and behaviors. Later, Eliza’s wishes of improving her education surprised Mr. Higgins because these were bigger than the wishes most women had in that time. It is a fact that the English men in 19th Century had access to a higher education, unlike women who could not access to a higher education than high school, and were exclusively at home. Eliza’s improvement in some areas such as grammar, pronunciation, and human relationships let the teacher to be interested in her. Thus, he made changes in her life, some of them intentionally. For instance, in the story’s climax, Eliza asks the teacher her old life back. Mr. Higgins controlled very much Eliza’s life that she feels herself another person.

Higgins: I dare say my mother could find some chap or other who would do very well.
Liza: We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road.
Higgins: What do you mean?
Liza: I sold flowers. I didn’t sell myself. Now you’ve made a lady of me. I’m not fit to sell anything else. I wish you’d left me where you found me.
[Pygmalion, Act IV]

Like Nora in A Doll’s House, Eliza Doolittle realizes herself that the kind of life she was living is not what she wanted. Eliza was living a life full of hopes and far from reality. When she noticed that she was a free girl and Mr. Higgins did the same, the relationship between Eliza and her teacher changed. Now, Mr. Higgins was interested in her, but Eliza’s response was very indifferent. She did not marry Mr. Higgins because of his power and control. She finally married Freddy, a man who was not her master or teacher, but her equal.

As a conclusion, Pygmalion’s myth was found in both plays, Shaw’s and Ibsen’s. We found out that in the same way the statue that made Pygmalion did not response to his wishes, Nora did not response his husband’s petition to stay with him and not to leave home, and Eliza did not marry Mr. Higgins. Therefore, the power and control that Torvarld, Henry, and Pygmalion had over their “creations” were the responsible of their failures.

Finally, I would like to share this poem with you in order to think about future ’cause I do believe the best is yet to come, although the past years have been great. And don’t forget to enjoy each moment of your life and remember that a goal without a plan is just a wish.

What can I say about the years? / What can I say about the months? / What can I say about the days? / What can I say about the hours? / What can I say about the minutes? / What can I say about the seconds? / The years, / The months, / The days, / The minutes, / The seconds, / Just time. / Everything’s on my side!

—Poem from the collection Soul Tattoo.