Soul Awakening

A vivid light splits through darkness, depth and despair

Opening my heart to new beginning, diving deep inside to go aware

Nothing, and no one can block your way in finding the truth

Get comfortable with yourself, leave the messy things, be in sooth

Somewhere beyond the deep horizons, is a place you belong

Where an orchestra plays your favorite sweet melancholic song

Save from vultures that feasted on my loving and peaceful heart

The hungry predators preyed upon to tear me apart

Rising from the past failures winning the battle of ebbs

Still finding courage, gaining strength to stand upon my legs

The scars will heal, and you will feel lighter and better

You will change and blossom,  to get more positive and wiser

Love is not the only endeavor to hang  and hold on forever

Open your soul to new awakening, feel the nature’s hidden treasure

Essence of Peace

The world is going through unprecedented chaos

Wars, hatred, confusion is  looming widely across

Death and destruction is bringing enormous loss

Conflicts are raging high, the affected people are living in pathos

Love and hate are closely related with one another

It is only in the human nature  to feel certain cloud cover

Hating someone leaves scars that are too ugly to ponder

Avoid toxic people, fear the path of darkness, feel better

Elegance  is when the inside is as beautiful as your face

The further you drift from hate, the more beauty you embrace

Forgive your enemies, let your anger pass and tenderness surface

It is only the light that can drive out darkness and bring grace

Good things are hard to achieve,  and bad things trouble free to grab

It is very difficult to save a fellow human,  but easy to stab

Freedom  from prejudice,  discrimination, snobbishness is better to nab

The worst sin towards humanity is violence, that needs a dab

The Night of Solitude

The night is murky and lonely, lights have gone out

After showing their beautiful effects, stars enshroud

The moon has hidden her face behind the clouds

Stormy winds have silenced their sounds

Colour of spring is fading away in oblivion

Stop a while, the atmosphere is full of passion

Sing a song for me, full of joy and exhilaration

The confusion buried in my heart has no easy solution

When there is resolve, why to stay untraced?

How many dreams from the beginning, I have braced

Alas!  When my eyes opened, dreams have fled.

Leaving me to lament, the mind body and heart to bled

It is not so easy to suppress the bounties of emotions

Wounds may be healed but scars can’t be cured by lotions

One can forget the pain by pretending to be fine

But it returns when the loneliness and solitude combine

Inayatullah is a well-known poet, essayist, and academic from India. He is a regular contributor to renowned international poetry groups and journals. His weekly posts “Sunday Slice,”  has a wide readership and has earned him recognition  in scholarly forums for providing value based education to the student community. His poetry covers a variety of themes and has earned him many accolades.

The frenzied whirl of the newsroom is the centerpiece for SOLD ON A MONDAY, an historical fiction novel to be easily savored and digested within a couple of days. You won’t be able to put this one down.

Cigar smoke, paper airplanes flying, loud chatter, phones ringing, reporters scurrying about spilling coffee, crumpled paper being tossed in rubbish bins, and rushed stand-up meetings happening in small spaces. All of this activity and the flurry of competition between reporters hungry for the next story are well portrayed by author Kristina McMorris.

The ability to create a definitive mood from chapter 1’s opening paragraph through to the last page of this book, is a stunning feat. As McMorris masterfully paints this literary masterpiece, she blends together an array of colors and textures, using tiny vivid details and subtle emotional nuance, all of which make this story sing.

As we travel through the chapters, the two lead characters, Ellis Reed and Lily Palmer, gradually reveal their human flaws. Yet, each possess a heart of gold.

The trigger to this compelling tale takes place when Ellis makes a snap decision under pressure at the very start of the book. As an aspiring junior news reporter seeking his first sizzling headline, he hopes to capture the hearts and minds of readers, as well as reel in attention from his newspaper chief.

The setting for the story is the East Coast, including the farmlands of Pennsylvania, the city of Pittsburgh, and the heart of New York City. The year is 1931, in the midst of the Great Depression and prohibition. Ellis has staged a photograph to ‘cover his ass’ with his tough demanding boss. The photo is a fake, set up to look like something real but that factually, ‘is not.’ The photograph and its evocative heart-tugging caption become ultra-popular with the masses, and Ellis’ career is launched into the big-time news world.

Ellis achieves his dream but the featured photograph and caption also serve to set off a ‘domino effect’ with grave repercussions; all caused by his unethical ‘spur of the moment’ decision. The result is a family torn apart, with two children placed in great danger, leaving Ellis emotionally broken because of the heavy guilt he carries. His dilemma is an ethical one, faced with how to ‘right a wrong’ that’s remained secret for months.

When Lily, also an aspiring reporter with a hidden past, enters the picture, readers will delight in the twists and turns that follow, and how their paths will intertwine.

This novel will undoubtedly have readers on the edge of their seats. There’s action, family tension, unrequited love, passion, and characters who must deal with challenging societal pressures, including ‘seedy’ crime bosses out to eliminate anyone that gets in their way.

But the real impact of this read for me personally was the tug on my emotions which caused me to think about at least one snap decision I made in my life that, unfortunately, set a fireball rolling downhill; and my world, as I knew it, tilted.

Everyone reading this work likely has at least one on-the-spot decision that they deeply regret. And that is why the lead characters in this novel are compelling and relatable.

SOLD ON A MONDAY, by Kristina McMorris, is one helluva read! I highly recommend picking this one up.

Lazy Cat

Lazy cat, you’re napping

In the sun again as if its June,

But in the center of the road,

Playfully flopped over the yellow line.

I can tell you’re a nice cat, black,

White paws and throat, pink nose.

I’m sure you rub legs, curl on laps,

Beg for a string, a fish, a saucer of cream.

You belong to the old woman in this house

Or the little girl in that house.

At first, I pass by: “That’s too bad.”

A neighbor’s car swerves;

A truck straddles your repose.

I pick you up and you’re not

Stiff yet. Blood on my gloves,

I set you on the curb, hoping

Loved ones will discover you,

Knowing someone will grieve

And surely give you a proper

Burial in their backyard.

The Granary

The granary stood

Leaning unassuming apart

From the barn and dairy

Painted the same red

As the machinery shed

Now fading more

Wood than pigment

Each a singular

Pungent redolence

Hay milk grease

The granary aroma

Was autumn and burlap

Plowing planting

Worry fruition

In its polished ribs

Boards slippery with chaff

The way the wheat

Sifted sliding over

Your palms was soothing

Familiar and primordial

An instinctual assurance

_Nature_

I hear the silence of the water in every morning walk.

A tree communicate with another tree through their roots and i feel their heart beat as i embrace that tree.

I belong to the nature as the nature live under my skin.

I fly with the eagles.

I run with the lions.

I play with the elephants in the mud.

I am a bridge between the perfect and the imperfection.

I am the image of the beauty and the dark.

As i was the guilty that burns the tree without a warning.

I cut the trees and i make a home.

I took the fishes in my plate.

I am the dangerous animal of all and nature keep supporting me in so Many different and extraordinary ways.

That the difference between human and nature.

I am not the creator but i am that little bee that trying for days to put the nectar  in the nest of the Queen. I was only a small ant that was looking for food.

I am the perfect and imperfect nature that will become the Dreamland of every living being 

I start to forgive this imperfect world and spread a new message of kindness and generosity.

Nature teach me to be free but not greed .

To be open but not manipulated.

To be the real me in any circumstances and accept my responsibilities.

Nature, only teach us how we can understand ourselves and become the real one.

The pureness is not easy but it is not impossible.

Dear Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie,

Dear Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I want to let you know that you saved a young boy. I want to let you know that you revealed a young boy to himself. I want to let you know that you made a young boy see himself. I want to let you know that you made a young boy feel seen. I want to let you know that you led a young boy towards healing. I want to let you know that you gave a young boy a voice. I want to let you know that you made a young boy see the world better. I want to let you know that the young boy began to seek for more, that the young boy became a citizen of the world, that the young boy decided not to die again, that the young boy began to walk with a surer gait, that the young boy decided to give life a chance, that the young boy began a journey of seeking for the meaning of his life.

Dear Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, I want to let you know that a young boy is still alive because of you.

Nearer To Ourselves

For Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

When our stories were far-fetched

You brought them closer to us.

When our stories meant only one thing

You made them versatile.

When we didn’t understand well,

You cared to explain.

When the stories were one-sided

You made them balanced.

You made us inquisitive.

You made us ask questions

You gave us a mirror to peek at ourselves.

You lighted up the gifts!

You said no to the silences.

You sat down,

Bore the pain,

Heard the calling.

And you answered the calling,

So that others could hear theirs too!

Isaac Dominion Aju is a Nigerian writer whose works have appeared in different literary publications. In the analysis of his creative nonfiction in Penned In Rage Journal (UK), his work was compared to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half Of A Yellow Sun on the theme of identity. 

School — The Golden Garden of Childhood

(Dedicated to Graduates)

School — a sacred trace etched in my heart,

Each letter a memory, each day a part.

Here we learned life’s very first truth,

Here began each dream, each light of youth.

Classmates’ laughter, teachers’ wise tone,

Moments engraved, in our hearts alone.

Notebooks and pens won’t fade from mind,

Each second a memory, one of a kind.

The echo of the final bell now rings,

Eyes full of tears, hearts with longings.

The future calls — the paths unfold,

But school remains in hearts of gold.

Thank you, dear teachers, your love a stream,

Your lessons the staff that holds our dream.

Farewell, our school — you’ve always been

Our first stairway to the stars unseen.

Jo‘rayeva Marjona Baxtiyorovna was born on October 18, 2003, in the Termiz district of Surxondaryo region, Uzbekistan.

I Can’t Stop Loving You
‎
‎

Is time new? ls time old?

‎How can I say to you?

‎How am I to know?

‎Why is it snowing?

‎Why is your everything without me?

‎The world is motionless.

‎I want to back in time

‎I want to back in you

‎I want to feel the spring of magic moment

‎Love won’t end

‎Time won’t change the sun.

‎

‎Give me another chance

‎Come back and touch my heart

‎You are still living here

‎I am not the slave of time

‎Was l wrong? Were you wrong?

‎Who will break the cell of egg?

‎It is l who am always ready

‎Hear my heart and  touch my arms

‎You are everywhere

‎You are around my dream

‎You may be false, your love may be false But I am true

‎My love is true

‎I have never divided my mind into two

‎I have never walked another way

‎I have read the tears of my love

‎Take my heart into your heart

‎Take my life

‎My love is true and timeless

‎It is virgin and pure

‎I can’t stop loving you.

‎

‎Ask your soul about me

‎Ask yourself about me

‎Let me know your answer.

‎I don’t care your answer

‎I love you

‎And l can’t stop loving you.