Poetry Solace: of life

Continuing with more poems from Emily Dickinson...

Life
VI.
If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.

XXII.
I had no time to hate, because
The grave would hinder me,
And life was not so ample I
Could finish enmity.

Nor had I time to love, but since
Some industry must be,
The little toil of love, I thought,
Was large enough for me. 




THE MYSTERY OF PAIN
Pain has an element of blank;
It cannot recollect
When it began, or if there were
A day when it was not

It has no future but itself,
Its infinite realms contain
Its past, enlightened to perceive
New periods of pain. 


Have a great weekend! Be safe!

Poetry Solace: in a library

From this week onward I will be sharing some poems taken from 'Poems of Emily Dickinson', Series One and Series Two. There is no intention to infringe any copyrights.

IN A LIBRARY
A precious, mouldering pleasure 't is
To meet an antique book,
In just the dress his century wore;
A privilege, I think,

His venerable hand to take,
And warming in  our own,
A passage back, or two, to make
To times when he was young.

His quaint opinions to inspect, 
His knowledge to unfold
On what concerns our mutual mind,
The literature of old;

What interested scholars most,
What competitions ran
When Plato was a certainty.
And Sophocles a man;

When Sappho was a living girl,
And Beatrice wore
The gown that Dante deified.
Facts, centuries before,

He traverses familiar,
As one should come to town
And tell you all your dreams were true;
He lived where dreams were sown.

His presence is enchantment,
You beg him not to go;
Old volumes shake their vellum heads
And tantalize, just so. 

Have a great weekend! Enjoy but stay safe!!

rio 2014

This year the World Cup is being held in Rio de Janeiro and the first match (Brazil vs Croatia) starts early tomorrow morning! Unfortunately I can't get live telecast through television or cable here in Taiwan. My only hope of watching matches live is via the internet. Hopefully I will find one that allows live streaming.

Anyway, the team I'm supporting is again Germany. :) As I've said before, I've always like the way the German national team played. Other than Die Mannschaft, I will also be watching matches involving Brazil (Grp A), Spain and The Netherlands (Grp B), England and Italy (Grp D), France (Grp E) and Portugal (Grp G). But ultimately I would love to see Germany win the Cup for the fourth time.

This time round, I will be in Europe for the later stages of the Cup, just like when I was in the US in 2002. Not sure if my CS hosts will be watching any of the matches, but I would love to see either or both The Netherlands and Belgium make it to the later stages. And I would want to be in a bar/pub and cheer with the locals for their team.

Here's to a clean and exciting World Cup 2014!

Europe trip 2.0

Have always wanted to visit Europe again after my Europe 2009 trip.. and this coming 24th, I will be flying off to Europe once more! :)

My conference paper were accepted by EGOS so I will be attending their 3-day conference in Rotterdam this July.. after careful thought, I've decided to go earlier and stay on later.. after all, I'll have to endure some 17 hours flight + transit time between Taipei and Amsterdam.. I'm not gonna 'suffer' for almost 34 hours in a plane only to spend 3 days for the conference..  all in all I will be spending 23 days in Europe, more specifically The Netherlands and Belgium.

So the cities that I'll be visiting: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Ghent, Brussels and Utrecht.  I could visit more cities with the time I have but I prefer to not spend most of it on trains/buses trying to get from one place to another. Thus I am going to stay a few days in each city so that I can get a feel of the place. I was never a fan of  rushing around  like contestants in "The Amazing Race".. That is also one reason why I've decided to go to Couchsurfing (CS) to look for hosts. What better way to get to know the cities than to stay with the locals, right?! So other than my time in Rotterdam where I've booked a hotel room through the conference organizers, I'm opting to stay with CS hosts.

This time round, I've decided to be more flexible which is something new considering what a control-freak I am.. I plan to list out the places that I wanna go, prioritize them and find out everything about the place (transport, opening hours and entrance fee, etc). Then when I get to that city, I will decide when and where to go. One thing for sure is that I will definitely try to visit as many museums as possible.. Other than museums, any other touristy places that I manage to visit will be a bonus..

Now that I've completed and submitted my full paper for the conference, I will have more time to sit down and plan this trip of mine, although I will still need to prepare the slides for my presentation at the conference. Nonetheless I am sooooo excited. Can't wait to set foot on Europe again..

follow me

No, I'm not talking about the "Follow Me" brand of hygiene products.. I'm inviting you to follow me on Twitter and Instagram. As you can see, I've incorporated them into this blog, at the right hand panel.. I'm kinda late to this social media thing, but hey it's never too late to start sharing right?!

So for those who wanna follow me:
Twitter Account: @imm_alexis
Instagram ID: alexisgoh23

With Twitter I get to vent/share my thoughts and feelings more spontaneously without having to think about how to write a medium/long article for it. With Instagram I can share photos online faster with some real cool filters.. Of course this blog will continue to be the place with I'll share my thoughts, after it is properly crafted and structured.. but for on the spur of the moment ramblings, just follow me.. :)

ran out.

If you have been following my blog (which I hope you are although I don't put much confidence in it), you should notice that I've kinda ran out of things to put.. No more Sunday Serenade.. no more Poetry Solace.. and with the ease of posting through Twitter and Instagram, I've kinda sidelined this blog..

Anyway, I'll try to write at least once a week.. or simply share some random photos I took some time ago.. Another thing I wanna say thank you to those whom have been following this blog.. It may seemed narcissistic but I'm writing because I know someone out there is reading..

Have a great work week ahead!