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If YOU are to have a Campaign Ad, WHO among these famous local celebrities would you want to be YOUR endorser?

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A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkn'd ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
'Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven's brink.


John Keats


More Poems by John Keats

Writing = Commitment & Responsibility

Perhaps one of the most rewarding parts of being a writer is to be exposed to a lot of people from varied backgrounds. Anyone who wishes to be a writer, first and foremost, must be interested in people. Why is it? No matter how brilliant a writer is—if he or she shuts out himself or herself from the world—it would be difficult to connect or make his or her message come across. It’s hard to paint in other people’s hearts what is not painted in his or her heart. Yes, writing is a form of expression, but an outlet that goes along with power. It isn’t just an ephemeral tool, but it’s something potent that transcends time. Thus, power in words that flows from one’s heart, mind, arms, hands and fingers are offspring of commitment and responsibility.

Writing may somehow satisfy a writer since he or she is able to let out his or her ‘inner voice’ in the open whatever forms it is being executed; but it doesn’t stop just there. Its purpose is beyond expression. Indeed, there maybe times, a writer feels like not writing or words won’t just come out spontaneously, it doesn’t mean that’s the end of everything. Or probably a writer had experienced a lot of rejections from his or her attempts in submitting manuscripts—it doesn’t mean that’s the death of pursuing a writing career. For real writers, they fight that struggle and do their best; they grab their pens and pads, pound their computer keys or even tinker their mobile phone keypads and push themselves some more to practice, to produce in order to get back into the momentum. Like any athlete, to stay in form—he or she has to have the discipline. It’s about commitment. Writing is not just writing when one just feels like doing it and when one isn’t in the mood—one chooses to resort the easy-way-out by giving up. Saying goodbye denies one the right to claim that he or she is a writer. A writer must have the see-you-later-attitude. When one is faced with a disguised insurmountable force, one can retreat for a time, then advance with resolution—prepared, garbed with the proper armaments.

People say writing is a lonely state. They classify writers as artists who starve to earn a living, viewed the profession as a ‘curse’ rather than a gift. As a writer never ever consider it as one. It is undeniable that like the prophets mentioned in scriptures—they suffered and all—same with writers, the successful ones. It’s a process. All writers who have gone ahead and made their names in history or even those who just started to discover the ‘urge’ of doing so—they somehow go through such state. The challenge is, as a writer would he or she choose to remain in that sad situation? Suffering is an option. If a writer agrees that being one is with no brighter prospect of making a difference, of succeeding—then it definitely will leave him or her a room full of frustrations. But if a writer views the trials as opportunities to better his or her craft and excel on it [whatever field or genre], he or she just didn’t stagnate. He or she has evolved and embraced the fact that as a writer the importance of being open is a lasting value. It is also his or her responsibility to be open toward his or her reader. If he or she grows as an individual, it is concomitant that his or her audience grows as well and with that in mind he or she is not just able to give a substantial material that entertains, but enlightens and educates, too.

A writer is like any food that leaves an aftertaste. A better representation is a pebble thrown in a pond—it creates rings of ripples. A good writer is one that kicks his or her reader on the ass, or simply pinches the heart because the writing didn’t just move the soul, it also did pierce or inspire like a double-edged sword. Being a writer, one possesses the power, but it is just like any superhero’s gift—it shouldn’t be used for venting, but rather create, communicate and celebrate a life-changing experience.

Paul Laurence Dunbar's Poem

We Wear the Mask

We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,--
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!


To read more poems by Dunbar, click here!

Happy Birthday!

It's been years since I mustered my strength, and just only now that I've accepted the event that we had before as something worth reliving and remembering. On your 25th birthday, I wish you well--that you'd be able to burst your essence, squeeze it and share it to which God will want you to share it with as you go on in your life's journey.

Happy birthday to you, Michael Corpuz Toledo! :)