Poetry from Ozodbek Narzullayev

Young Central Asian man with a baseball cap and white collared shirt.

Don’t Lie to Me, Mother

I know you wait for me with hope so bright,
You cry in silence deep into the night,
Just one request I ask with all my might —
Don’t hide your pain inside, my dearest mother,
Don’t say “I’m fine” and lie to me, dear mother.

No matter what — please tell me, let me share,
Let me be your healer, show I care,
Let me be the shield you always wear,
Don’t hide your pain inside, my dearest mother,
Don’t say “I’m fine” and lie to me, dear mother.

Without you, what would this world mean to me?
Without you, my days would empty be.
Tell me your sorrow — I beg you, set it free,
Don’t hide your pain inside, my dearest mother,
Don’t say “I’m fine” and lie to me, dear mother.

In every word, your kindness I can trace,
In every glance — deep love I still embrace,
To me, you’re life’s most sacred, tender grace,
Don’t hide your pain inside, my dearest mother,
Don’t say “I’m fine” and lie to me, dear mother.

When you smile, my heart is full of light,
When you tear, my soul weeps through the night,
Your son Ozodbek thinks of you each night,
Don’t hide your pain inside, my dearest mother,
Don’t say “I’m fine” and lie to me, dear mother.

Ozodbek Narzullayev was born on December 20, 2006, in the village of Bo‘ston, Koson district, Qashqadaryo region. His works have been published in several anthologies. He has participated in numerous creative competitions and has won top prizes. He is the author of the book titled “The Heart’s Emotions.”

Poetry from Hamza Kamar

Revolution 

We are holding out for a hero. With our forehead carved of multi versa wisdoms, 

Sent rowing on a boat designed for a destined night 

Stuck in a time lapse of revolutionary haibun 

With a soothing arctic cooling of illiteracy volcanic tears dripping on a night breast 

Calming flames of corruption 

Ascending on a house of cleaning the world dark stains

Said as he who calm anger with knowing, 

He who freezes the  magma flow of belittled burnt on nightmares 

He who spreads wisdom like wild fire. Wouldn’t sought barricades on a night songs face 

Hamza Kamar is a 16 years old Nigerian poet, painter, and Content Creator. currently studying at Legend International School. He is also member of Hill-top Creative Art Foundation (HCAF).

Poetry from Pat Doyne

GAZA’S HUNGER GAMES

If you live in Gaza,

hunger is your meat—

hunger for coexistence, for peace.

A banquet of fruitless craving.

Bombs rain down on hospitals,

on volunteers bringing food,

on those who own no weapons.

Listen. Children are whimpering—

hungry children chew leaves,

children wave arms and legs like sticks.

If you live in Gaza,

hunger is your banquet, day after day.

Empty bellies greet dawn with despair.

Babies die because famished mothers

have no milk. Both are  weeping.

Nations feed Gaza’s people bold words,

a feast of empty promises.

But all that’s real is hunger—

wielded like a broadsword,

cutting down emaciated neighbors.

Powerful men grapple for land

by withholding compassion–

until their own humanity wastes away.

Troops are reduced to stick figures:

us wiping out them.

In Gaza, both predators and prey

are slowly starving.

Starved souls wage war by starving the unwelcome.

If you live in Gaza,

hunger is your last meal.

Poetry from Sally Lee

Blend

A girl on the far left—

a cooling white sweater, 

navy shorts that absorbed the salty texture of the sea

—raises her arm to shield her eyes from the glittering beam.

Ships fly across the waves,

seagulls float in the sky; 

a brushstroke deeper, 

layered in long tones of slate and teal. 

The water moves with quiet muscle,

creases of white gathering near the shore

before breaking into lace at the toes 

of seven figures drawn by tide—

some standing close where the water sighs,

ankles kissed by foam;

others linger just behind,

head slightly rested back, caressed by the soft ocean winds.

A few drift farther down the shore, 

turned slightly, as if to say:

‘come see what the horizon hides.’

Three boys with their feet buried in the chilling sand,

one with a backwards hat, trying to fight the glaring gleam.

Two others play rock, scissors, paper 

—their conversation captured in the pause between waves. 

Sand, pale gold and warm with noon, 

holds footprints like soft echoes.  

The sun presses down,

gives the waves a shimmer that sings. 

Light folds over each figure, placed precisely,

spaced like notes in a slow chord—

black shirts, white sleeves, a shoulder bare to the sun,

each color bleeding into the sea and sky.

Portraits Without First Chapters

The silence after a story that’s missing its end—

that’s how we meet them.

A pair of wrinkled hands, softened with time, already slower.

Their voices linger not in memory but in my imagination. 

A train ticket with no date,

folded in a drawer beside war medals

and recipes written in a language, 

we never learned to speak. 

The note tucked into a borrowed book,

Laying neatly between pages of stories

flat, delicate, and fragile. 

Maybe from someone they loved 

before the word “family” included us—

a couple of letters to me, 

a name I’ll truly never know. 

We hold their endings like heirlooms, 

guessing at beginnings. 

Through photographs where they are younger

than we’ll ever know them to be. 

A Childhood in Five Objects 

Its fur dulled by the decade of sun, 

ears bent from too many hugs, 

eyes stitched with storied only I recall. 

It once leaped from planets I drew in crayons, 

spoke bedtime whispers only I could hear. 

A stuffed rabbit slumps against the wall, now it waits—

from the last time, I tucked it in, quietly guarding retired dreams. 

Where tea parties once were held.

Its patterns are now a faded trail,

stories of imagination yet more vibrant than  

the wallpaper’s flowers ever dared to bloom, 

echoes etched deeper than time could consume. 

It has caught the weight of every goodbye—

To dolls, to friends, to phases passed. 

Now it cradles still, but never forgets the shape of my steps. 

Their spines creased with thumbprints of belief. 

Each page reverberates my mother’s voice,

each character a mask she wore—yet all I remember is her. 

Now they rest like loyal sentinels,

inked in the versions of me they kept,  

a carpet lies bruised with soft indentations.  

Framing skies that changed with my moods,

stormy eams, sunlit breaks, a single star I wished upon.

Four repeating seasons, every item slowly maturing with the age of time. 

At night it played the moon’s lullaby, 

by day, the chatter of birds on the branches. 

Now it reflects back the outside world,

but never quite lets it in. 

Warping my height as I grew each year, 

Flashing glimpses of twirls, tears,

and the first stolen lipstick swipe.

Reflecting words mouthed in silence, a face rehearsed,

it now holds the quiet imprint of every version I’ve been.

Sally Lee is a student at an international school in Seoul, South Korea. Immersed in a multicultural environment, she draws inspiration from the diverse cultures and experiences around her. She is currently working on her writing portfolio.

Poetry from Mykyta Ryzhykh

Flower  

a disbelieving priest got lost on his way to the sausage shop

god died

a dog died and cheap semi-counterfeit sausage appeared

god died and cheap semi-counterfeit sausage appeared

a son planted a cherrystone bone and a tree grew from the rib

god was born

a dog was born

a homeless dog is a god born in the cold

merry christmas

the butcher shop is closed for the holidays

the meat has fallen asleep

merry birthday

a tree gives birth to a flower

but a flower is not the future

Вird

province of death

without a hat and jacket a snowman goes out into the street

and around the raging iblian hot weather

a fragment of a shot moon falls out of a gun

naked people press themselves against the pistols of summer

a snowman shoots me in the chest and a bird flies out

Poetry from Jacques Fleury

Jaden piblik/Public Garden

My Poetry Translation and Recording Featured in a “Sound Walk” at the Boston Public Garden

ECHOES APP

Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States

A collaboration with between Cantabridgian poet Jacques Fleury and Bostonian musician Rachel Devorah Wood Rome, Ph.D.by Jacques Fleury

Boston Public Garden Image C/O Jacques Fleury

Boston Public Garden scene, boat on water with wooden benches and a white swan statue. Gray suspension bridge in the background, trees and grass and a building off in the distance on a sunny clear day.

I am featured in a “Sound Walk” recording on the Boston Public Garden!

I was commissioned by Berklee College of Music Professor, Dr. Rachel Rome, who discovered me on the Haitian American Artists of Massachusetts Facebook page, to translate and record a poem to her naturalistic electronic musical composition at Berklee recording studios.  The recording is divided into three sections, each having its own sound and intent achieved by dividing the poem into three parts. You can listen to it as part of your meditation practice, whether manually or at the Boston Public Garden itself should you be visiting or live in the Boston area.

The poem was originally written in English  by Dr. Jason Allen Paissant, a professor of Jamaican descent who speaks seven languages. 

It is about the manmade  erosion of our natural wonders and entitled TREENESS. Below is the poem, the translation and link to the public garden recording which you can listen to manually or visit the garden to listen automatically on the app. 

Check it out!

Link to my Haitian Creole translation of the poem Treeness at the Boston public garden, which will be there indefinitely…

You can visit and listen for years to come on your phone by downloading the ECHOES app!

Link to listen to the recording on the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/jadenpiblik

Link to download on Echoes App to listen manually if NOT in Boston or at the Public Garden if you are:

https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/d859Ek1TXRNh64gz

“All Soundwalks are located at Boston Common and Boston Public Garden. Boston Common and Public Garden are open 

from 6:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. each day.

Installation Title: Jaden Piblik/public garden

A diverse collection of plants from around the world live together in the Boston Public Garden, embodying the ideals and contradictions of the United States. Heralded as the “first public botanical garden in the United States,” this historic site reflects a uniquely American paradox: the aspiration for multicultural democratic inclusivity juxtaposed with the tenants of colonialism. Nature is not left to thrive on its own terms but meticulously curated, shaped to conform to Victorian notions of beauty and order. jaden piblik is an electroacoustic soundwalk setting of the Haitian-Cantabrigian poet Jacques Fleury’s Haitian-Creole translation of the English-language poem “Treeness” by Jason Allen-Paisant. The work bridges languages and traditions, resonating with the complex, layered histories embodied in the Public Garden itself.”-qtd. from the Echoes website.

Treeness

By Jason Allen-Paisant

A tapestry of earth suspended

In a forested temple

Beneath the roots

The sheer face of a cliff

Music from a rock gong

Among the snakes

Of the rhododendrons

Trembling at the blackness

Of their skin a human walking

Among the birds

Past the barrier of time

A climb away from land

Where we punish ourselves

Because there are no trees

Because the woodlands

Have been cut down and

Land has no time for itself

If my thoughts can become

Ageless let them travel to a place

Called Infinite from

The words that kill time that kill

Things that kill vines let me lie

In the infinity of a beetle in

Its meshwork in the muscles

That grow from its burrowing a way

From the noises

Of the crowd whose sounds silence

The music of rhododendrons

Who shun the temple of the rock gong

And the sacred hanging tapestry where

The birds’ thoughts echo

Dear tree let me lose

my head and find it in the

Hairs of the birches

In the air where my feet meet

the river that blossoms

From their exposed veins

Treeness

By Jason Allen-Paisant

(Translated to Haitian Creole by Jacques Fleury)

Yon tapi sou latè sispan

Nan yon tanp forè

Anba rasin yo

Fè fas a absoli nan yon falèz

Mizik ki soti nan yon gong wòch

Pami koulèv yo

Nan rododendron yo

Tranble nan nwa a

Nan po yo, yon moun ap mache

Pami zwazo yo

Pase baryè tan an

Yon grenpe lwen tè a

Kote nou pini tèt nou

Paske pa gen pye bwa

Paske rakbwa yo te koupe

Epi tè a pa gen tan pou tèt li

Si panse m ka vin san laj

Kite yo vwayaje nan yon kote

Yo rele Enfini

Soti nan pawòl ki touye tan ki touye

Bagay ki touye pye rezen

kite m kouche nan infini yon skarabe

Nan net li nan misk yo

Ki grandi nan twou li ale

Pou li soti nan bwi yo

Nan foul moun ki fè silans

Mizik la nan rododendron yo

Ki moun ki evite tanp gong wòch la

Ak sakre tapi pandye a

Kote panse zwazo yo fè eko

Chè pye bwa, kite m pèdi tèt mwen

Epi jwenn li nan cheve nan Birches yo

Nan lè a, kote pye m ‘kontre

Larivyè Lefrat la ki fleri

Soti nan venn ekspoze yo

______________________________________________________________

Young adult Black man with short shaved hair, a big smile, and a suit and purple tie.
Jacques Fleury

Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at:  http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.–

Silhouetted figure leaping off into the unknown with hand and leg raised. Bushes and tree in the foreground, mountains ahead. Book is green and yellow with black text and title.
Jacques Fleury’s book You Are Enough: The Journey Towards Understanding Your Authentic Self

Rachel Devorah Wood Rome
Rachel Devorah Wood Rome is a Boston-based electronic musician, educator, and labor organizer. She values machines for their patience and capacity to remember. She is interested in superhuman prolongation, opaque complexity, the re-signification of archaic tools and materials, and parallels between the physical properties and social meanings of spaces. Her work has received support from the Adrian Piper Foundation (Berlin), EMS (Stockholm), INA/GRM (Paris), the Goethe Institut [DE], MassMoCA [US], the New Museum [US], New Music USA, STEIM (Amsterdam), Swissnex [CH], and Villa Albertine [FR]. It has been released on pan y rosas discos (Chicago); Infrequent Seams (NYC); and Full Spectrum Records (Oakland), published by parallax; Feminist Media Histories; and Ugly Duckling Presse, and has been heard in fourteen countries on four continents performed by/with artists such as Nava Dunkelman, Fred Frith, Forbes Graham, Brad Henkel, Seiyoung Jang, Ava Mendoza, Roscoe Mitchell, Robbie Lee, Lydia Moyer, Ryan Muncy, Liew Niyomkarn, Erin Rogers, and the William Winant Ensemble. She is employed as an Assistant Professor of Electronic Production and Design | Creative Coding at the Berklee College of Music, and Vice President of Full-Time Faculty with MS1140 AFT Massachusetts.

Essay from Panoyeva Jasmina O’tkirovna

SPEAKING  ACTIVITIES  FOR  FLUENCY  AND ACCURACY:                                    

                 A BALANCED APPROACH

Annotation: One of the most important but difficult goals for teachers in language teaching is to find a balance between fluency and accuracy. Fluency helps learners express their thoughts clearly and confidently, while accuracy makes sure that their language use is correct and fits the situation. Focusing on just one part of communicative competence may slow down its overall growth. So, for language learning to be effective, it’s important to take a balanced approach that includes activities that focus on both fluency and accuracy. So, this article talks about how important it is to have a balanced approach to helping students improve their grammar and fluency. It looks at free conversation, role-playing, and discussion exercises to help people speak more fluently, as well as grammar and pronunciation exercises that are designed to help people speak more accurately. The article gives teachers suggestions on how to do things and real-life examples that will help them get good results in the classroom.

  Key words: Educational technology, positive learning environment, direct instructions, fluency, accuracy, natural, repetition, drilling, pronunciation, pairwork games, tongue twister.

  Firstly, teachers have a significant impact on students’ values, attitudes, and behaviours, and this influence frequently extends beyond the classroom. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, teachers act as role models for their students because they are authority figures who engage with them on a daily basis. Students are more likely to internalise and emulate teachings that exhibit traits like honesty, respect, punctuality, and a love of learning. This influence is particularly potent when the younger generation is developing their social identities and moral convictions.

For instance, a teacher who treats every student fairly and kindly not only fosters a positive learning environment in the classroom but also sets an example for how to use empathy and respect in daily interactions. Likewise, when a teacher calmly manages a challenging lesson or adjusts to unforeseen circumstances in the classroom, they can encourage students to be resilient and determined in their own lives. Since students witness values being exhibited in practical settings rather than merely in theory, such a role model frequently has greater impact than direct instruction. 

The movie Freedom Writers tells the story of Erin Gruwell, a teacher who really lived. She changed the lives of many students from troubled backgrounds by being dedicated, caring, and willing to go above and beyond the standard curriculum. Through her work, they learnt that discipline, empathy, and faith in the potential of others can help them get through difficult times. In daily life, even small things like warmly greeting students every morning, showing real interest in their lives, or admitting mistakes can have a big impact on how students think and act. In short, teachers are not only teaching academic subjects when they show their students the qualities they want to develop in them. They are also helping young people grow as a whole. Their actions become a living program that teaches them life skills and moral values, and the effects of education go far beyond the classroom.

  Activities that focus on clarity put a lot of emphasis on using the right language, which helps students improve their grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation, making their communication clear and professional. Fluency encourages people to speak without thinking, while precision stops mistakes from becoming ingrained over time and builds a strong language base. Typically, these kinds of activities are short, controlled, and meant to help students practise certain language patterns before they use them in free communication. To help students remember how to use things correctly, teachers often use repetition, targeted correction, and clear explanations. One of the most common ways to learn is through drilling, where students repeat certain structures over and over again until they know them by heart.

For instance, practicing conditional sentences like “If I had studied harder, I would have passed the test” helps students learn both how to do things automatically and how to do them correctly. Games with a grammar focus are also useful resources. Grammar review becomes engaging and interactive when students are required to use the appropriate tense when asking and responding to questions, such as “Find someone who has been to London,” in the “Find someone who…” activity. Simple pairwork exercises that teach students to hear and pronounce subtle sound differences that can impact meaning, like differentiating between ship and sheep, can help students improve their pronunciation accuracy.

  It is commonly known that tongue twisters, which are brief sentences or phrases with repeated and similar sounds, are useful tools for improving spoken language accuracy and fluency. Their ability to engage several facets of speech production—pronunciation, articulation, rhythm, and intonation—all at once makes them valuable in the learning process. From the standpoint of fluency, tongue twisters instruct students on how to rapidly and fluidly pronounce a series of sounds without making undue pauses or hesitations. The speaker concentrates on creating seamless transitions between the sounds because they are frequently similar but marginally different, which is reminiscent of the requirements of natural communication. The tongue twister “She sells seashells by the seashore,” for instance, compels the learner to make rapid sounds, improving speech coordination. With regular practice, such tasks reduce hesitation and improve the natural flow of speech.

  In conclusion, developing comprehensive language competence requires striking an efficient balance between speaking activities’ accuracy and fluency. While accuracy guarantees that their speech is grammatically correct, precise, and socially acceptable, fluency enables students to convey their ideas clearly, maintain communication flow, and grow confident in real-life confrontations. A balanced approach recognises that these two elements are not mutually exclusive but rather interdependent: accuracy without fluency may impede spontaneity and natural expression, while fluency without accuracy runs the risk of fossilising errors. Teachers must use a variety of teaching strategies that incorporate both form-focused and meaning-focused activities in order to achieve this balance. While focused drills, constructive criticism, and pronunciation practice help improve accuracy, role-plays, debates, and discussions encourage students to speak freely, fostering fluency.

Importantly, activity sequencing and adaptation should be in line with learners’ communicative needs, learning objectives, and proficiency levels. Students are more willing to take chances and try new things with language when they are in a classroom setting that is encouraging and views errors as chances for improvement. So, a well-rounded approach gives students the communicative competence they need to operate with assurance and effectiveness in a variety of real-world situations, in addition to improving language proficiency. Teachers can develop students who are not only articulate and expressive but also precise and contextually appropriate in their speech by carefully crafting speaking exercises that foster both fluency and accuracy. By ensuring that language acquisition progresses from isolated skill mastery to true communicative ability, this all-encompassing approach equips students for meaningful interaction in everyday, professional, and academic contexts.

References:

1. Brown, H. D. (2007). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching (5th ed.). Pearson Education.

2. Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching (4th ed.). Pearson Longman.

3. Nation, I. S. P., & Newton, J. (2009). Teaching ESL/EFL Listening and Speaking. Routledge.

4. Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (2014). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching (3rd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

5. Thornbury, S. (2005). How to Teach Speaking. Pearson Longman.

6. Ur, P. (2012). A Course in English Language Teaching (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.

7. Bygate, M. (1998). Theoretical Perspectives on Speaking. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 18, 20–42.

8. Ellis, R. (2003). Task-Based Language Learning and Teaching. Oxford University Press.

Panoyeva Jasmina O’tkirovna was born on November 14, 2006, in the Shofirkon district of Bukhara region. She graduated with a gold medal from School No. 13 in Shofirkon, demonstrating academic excellence and dedication throughout her studies.

Currently, she is a first-year student at Bukhara State Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Foreign Languages and Literature. Jasmina is an intellectually curious and active young woman who regularly participates in the “Zakovat” intellectual game, showcasing her critical thinking and broad knowledge.

In addition to her academic and intellectual pursuits, Jasmina has also contributed as a volunteer to several environmental projects, reflecting her strong sense of social responsibility and commitment to sustainable development.

With her passion for learning and active involvement in both academic and social initiatives, Jasmina continues to grow as a promising and motivated student, ready to make meaningful contributions to her field and community.