First of all, published poet and contributor Tao Yucheng is still hosting a poetry contest, open to all readers of Synchronized Chaos Magazine.

Synchronized Chaos Poetry Contest: We seek short, powerful, imaginative, and strange poetry. While we welcome all forms of free verse and subject matter, we prefer concise work that makes an impact.

Guidelines: Submit up to five poems per person to taoyucheng921129@proton.me. Each poem should not exceed one page (ideally half a page or less). All styles and themes welcome. Deadline for submissions will be in early March.

Prizes: First Place: $50 Second Place: $10, payable via online transfer. One Honorable Mention. Selected finalists will be published in Synchronized Chaos Magazine.

Also, past contributor Alexander Kabishev is seeking international poems of four lines each on the theme of friendship for a global anthology. The anthology, Hyperpoem, will be published by Ukiyoto Press and a presentation of the poem will take place in Dubai in August 2026.

Kabishev says the new vision of the project goes beyond commercial frameworks, aiming to become an international cultural and humanitarian movement, with the ambitious goal of reaching one million participants and a symbolic planned duration of one thousand years.

The focus is on promoting international friendship, respect for the identity of all peoples on Earth, and building bridges of understanding between cultures through poetry and its readers.

Please send poems to Alexander at aleksandar.kabishev@yandex.ru

This month’s issue asks the question, “Who Will We Become?” Submissions address introspection, spiritual searching, and moral and relational development and decision-making.

This issue was co-edited by Yucheng Tao.

Sajid Hussain’s metaphysical, ethereal poetry, rich with classical allusions, reminds us of the steady passage of time.

Jamal Garougar’s New Year reflection emphasizes ritual, spirituality, and the practices of patience and peace. Taylor Dibbert expresses his brief but cogent hope for 2026.

Dr. Jernail S. Anand’s spare poetry illustrates the dissolution of human identity. Bill Tope’s short story reflects on memory and grief through the protagonist’s recollection of his late school classmate. Turkan Ergor considers the depth of emotions that can lie within a person’s interior. Sayani Mukherjee’s poem on dreams lives in the space between waking thought and imaginative vision. Stephen Jarrell Williams offers up a series of childhood and adult dreamlike and poetic memories. Alan Catlin’s poem sequence renders dreams into procedural logic: how fear, guilt, memory, and culture behave when narrative supervision collapses. Priyanka Neogi explores silence itself as a creator and witness in her poetry. Duane Vorhees’ rigorous poetic work interrogates structure: individuality, myth, divinity, agency, culture. Tim Bryant analyzes the creative process and development of craft in Virginia Aronson’s poetic book of writerly biographies, Collateral Damage.

Nurbek Norchayev’s spiritual poetry, translated from English to Uzbek by Nodira Ibrahimova, expresses humility and gratitude to God. Timothee Bordenave’s intimate devotional poetry shares his connection to home and to his work and his feelings of gratitude.

Through corrosive imagery and fractured music, Sungrue Han’s poem rejects sacred authority and reclaims the body as a site of sound, resistance, and memory. Shawn Schooley’s poem operates through liturgical residue: what remains after belief has been rehearsed, delayed, or partially evacuated. Slobodan Durovic’s poem is a high-lyric, baroque lament, drawing from South Slavic oral-poetic density, Biblical rhetoric, and mythic self-abasement.

Melita Mely Ratkovic evokes a mystical union between people, the earth, and the cosmos. Jacques Fleury’s work is rich in sensory detail and conveys a profound yearning for freedom and renewal. The author’s use of imagery—“fall leaf,” “morning dew,” “unfurl my wings”—evokes a vivid sense of life’s beauty and the desire to fully experience it. James Tian speaks to care without possession, love through distance and observation. Mesfakus Salahin’s poem evokes a one-sided love that is somewhat tragic, yet as eternal as the formation of the universe, as Mahbub Alam describes a love struggling to exist in a complicated and wounded world. Kristy Ann Raines sings of a long-term, steady, and gallant love.

Lan Xin evokes and links a personal love with collective care for all of humanity. Ri Hossain expresses his hope for a gentler world by imagining changed fairy tales. Critic Kujtim Hajdari points out the gentle, humane sensibility of Eva Petropoulou Lianou’s poetry. Brian Barbeito’s lyric, understated travel essay passes through a variety of places and memories. Anna Keiko’s short poem shares her wish for a simple life close to nature. Christina Chin revels in nature through sensual, textured haikus.

Doniyorov Shakhzod describes the need for healthy and humane raising of livestock animals. g emil reutter hits us on the nose with cold weather and frigid social attitudes towards the suffering of the poor and working classes. Patricia Doyne lampoons authoritarian tendencies in the American government. Eva Petropoulou Lianou reminds us that we cannot truly enjoy freedom without a moral, peaceful, and just society. Sarvinoz Giyosova brings these types of choices down to a personal level through an allegory about different parts of one person’s psychology.

Dr. Jernail S. Anand critiques societal mores that have shifted to permit hypocrisy and the pursuit of appearances and wealth at all costs. Inomova Kamola Rasuljon qizi highlights the social and medical effects and implications of influenza and its prevention. Sandip Saha’s work provides a mixture of direct critique of policies that exploit people and the environment and more personal narratives of life experiences and kindness. Gustavo Gac-Artigas pays tribute to Renee Nicole Good, recently murdered by law enforcement officers in the USA.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Qaysi expresses his deep and poetic love for a small child. Abduqahhorova Gulhayo shares her tender love for her dedicated and caring father. Qurolboyeva Shoxista Olimboy qizi highlights the connection between strong families and a strong public and national Uzbek culture. Ismoilova Jasmina Shavkatjon qizi’s essay offers a clear, balanced meditation on women in Uzbekistan and elsewhere as both moral architects and active agents of social progress, grounding its argument in universal human values rather than abstraction.

Dilafruz Muhammadjonova and Hilola Khudoyberdiyeva outline the contributions of Bekhbudiy and other Uzbek Jadids, historical leaders who advocated for greater democracy and education. Soibjonova Mohinsa melds the poetic and the academic voices with her essay about the role of love of homeland in Uzbek cultural consciousness. Dildora Xojyazova outlines and showcases historical and tourist sites in Uzbekistan. Zinnura Yuldoshaliyeva explicates the value of studying and understanding history. Rakhmanaliyeva Marjona Bakhodirjon qizi’s essay suggests interactive and playful approaches to primary school education. Uzbek student Ostanaqulov Xojiakba outlines his academic and professional accomplishments.

Aziza Joʻrayeva’s essay discusses the strengths and recent improvements in Uzbekistan’s educational system. Saminjon Khakimov reminds us of the importance of curiosity and continued learning. Uzoqova Gulzoda discusses the importance of literature and continuing education to aspiring professionals. Toychiyeva Madinaxon Sherquzi qizi highlights the value of independent, student-directed educational methods in motivating people to learn. Erkinova Shahrizoda Lazizovna discusses the diverse and complex impacts of social media on young adults.

Alex S. Johnson highlights the creative energy and independence of musician Tairrie B. Murphy. Greg Wallace’s surrealist poetry assembles itself as a bricolage of crafts and objects. Noah Berlatsky’s piece operates almost entirely through phonetic abrasion and semantic sabotage, resisting formal logic and evoking weedy growth. Fiza Amir’s short story highlights the level of history and love a creative artist can have for their materials. Mark Blickley sends up the trailer to his drama Paleo: The Fat-Free Musical. Mark Young’s work is a triptych of linguistic play, consumer absurdity, and newsfeed dread, unified by an intelligence that distrusts nostalgia, coherence, and scale. J.J. Campbell’s poetry’s power comes from the refusal to dress things up, from humor as insulation against pain. On the other end of the emotional spectrum, Taghrid Bou Merhi’s essay offers a lucid, philosophically grounded meditation on laughter as both a humane force and a disruptive instrument, tracing its power to critique, heal, and reform across cultures and histories. Mutaliyeva Umriniso’s story highlights how both anguish and laughter can exist within the same person.

Paul Tristram traces various moods of a creative artist, from elation to irritation, reminding us to follow our own paths. Esonova Malika Zohid qizi’s piece compares e-sports with physical athletics in unadorned writing where convictions emerge with steady confidence. Dr. Perwaiz Shaharyar’s poetry presents simple, defiant lyrics that affirm poetry as an indestructible form of being, embracing joy, exclusion, and madness without apology.

Ozodbek Yarashov urges readers to take action to change and improve their lives. Aziza Xazamova writes to encourage those facing transitions in life. Fazilat Khudoyberdiyeva’s poem asserts that even an ordinary girl can write thoughtful and worthy words.

Botirxonov Faxriyor highlights the value of hard work, even above talent. Taro Hokkyo portrays a woman finding her career and purpose in life.

We hope that this issue assists you, dear readers, in your quest for meaning and purpose.

Review of Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage: Literary Biographies by Virginia Aronson is a keeper.

As explained in the Introduction, the poems in this collection focus on some well-known poets who have caused suffering and suffered themselves. Each poem is narrated by the poet, or a lover, spouse, muse or other intimate. Having read Smiling Little Hooks, her biographical poems related to Sylvia Plath, I knew she was up to the challenge. Aronson keeps her empathy ability set on eleven.

Now add her well-honed poet’s eye, a filter through which she renders powerful metaphors and depth perception. Her poems lay out what happened in the lives of these revered authors and those descriptions are smoothly linear yet have the unexpected potency of seemingly harmless cocktails: Long Island Iced Tea, Cosmopolitan, Mai Tai.

I don’t want to give them all away but here are some favorite zingers: 

In a poem speaking for T.S. Eliot’s first wife, she writes: And when living is done/ he told me one firey night/ he would like his bones/ flung into my grave.

Speaking for Robert Lowell’s widow: It’s the worst to see/ a man, a woman, an estate/soaked in the black suds/of disaster and sold off/ to help pay off/ debt, help, rooms/rented out while I wrote/of the abyss he fell in/without me.

For Anne Sexton’s therapist she channeled this: I was the one who/ she later wrote/ walked from breakfast/ to madness at the sad hotel / while she raged in her own/ glass bowl…

And for Dylan Thomas’s wife:  Drink was his temporary escape/ from the slavery of his calling/ there was no escape/ for me/ from Dylan/ his werewolf heart/ full of black blood/ until he died/ from drink.

It seems a familiar story: when mortals follow muses down that path—be it writing, making music, painting…other forms of self-expression, the ride can be rocky and fraught with collateral damage.

# # #

Tim Bryant’s has two published novels, Blue Rubber Pool (2018) and The Bird in Your Heart: A Carolina Sea Island Story (2023) with a third, The Stained Glass Mustang, scheduled for publication in May of this year through Unsolicited Press.

Virginia Aronson’s Collateral Damage: Literary Biographies is available here.

Influenza – a Disease That Should Not Be Taken Lightly

Influenza is not just a common cold; it is a highly contagious infectious disease that weakens the entire body. It occurs most frequently during the autumn and winter seasons and is dangerous because it can spread rapidly from one person to many others. A person suffering from influenza often feels extremely weak, experiences body aches, dizziness, loss of appetite, and lacks the strength to carry out daily activities.

Influenza is caused by Influenza A, B, and C viruses. These viruses enter the respiratory tract and damage the nose, throat, and lungs. Since influenza is a viral disease, antibiotics are ineffective against it. The virus also mutates quickly, which is why influenza can occur repeatedly every year.

One of the most dangerous aspects of influenza is how easily it spreads. When an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks, the virus is released into the air and enters a healthy person’s body through breathing. In addition, the virus can spread through contact with contaminated surfaces. For example, the virus can be transmitted via door handles, mobile phones, money, or dishes, and infection occurs when a person touches their mouth, nose, or eyes afterward. This is why influenza can spread quickly and infect many people in a short time.

People with influenza usually develop a high fever, sore throat, runny or blocked nose, cough, muscle and joint pain. The most troubling symptom is severe weakness and fatigue, making it difficult even to get out of bed. As a result, patients may be unable to go to work or school and struggle to perform household tasks. This significantly reduces a person’s quality of life.

If influenza is not treated properly or is ignored, it can lead to serious complications such as bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections, or heart-related problems. Influenza is especially dangerous for pregnant women, children, the elderly, and people with chronic illnesses.

Therefore, influenza should not be considered a mild illness. Prevention is extremely important. Regular handwashing with soap, wearing masks in crowded places, ventilating rooms, avoiding close contact with sick individuals, eating vitamin-rich foods, and getting vaccinated against influenza whenever possible are strongly recommended.

Influenza is a serious disease that exhausts the body, reduces quality of life, and can cause severe complications. By taking responsibility for their health and following preventive measures, people can protect both themselves and those around them.

To prevent influenza, cleanliness, caution, and a healthy lifestyle are essential. Frequent handwashing, being careful in crowded places, ventilating living spaces, eating nutritious foods, and getting enough rest are simple yet effective ways to protect against influenza. If everyone follows these rules, they can help safeguard both themselves and others from the disease.

Inomova Kamola Rasuljon qizi was born in 2003 in the city of Andijan. Uzbekistan. She is a 5th-year student at Andijan State Medical Institute.

Silence 

The heart to heart talks silently. 

A feverish morning waiting for the evening, 

Whispering, fish-colored gasps, running and laughing, 

The new bud on the new path is everyone’s eye. 

The talk goes on saying that you should be quiet. 

Time will give some answers. 

To retreat silently to the last position, 

To feel the attitude of behavior and continue work. 

In the composition of silent situations & words, 

without words are expressed in the sea, 

Illusory imagination floats in the world of the mind. 

Magh comes to Paush to compose sentences. 

The witness remains in the quiet room of the understanding mind. 

Answers play a silent role in the passage of time. 

Reflection takes place in silent discourse as causality. 

Insistence comes to the new creator, 

providing words without words, 

Silence wins in the dawn.

Short biography: Amb. Dr. Priyanka Neogi from Coochbehar. She is an administrative Controller of United Nations PAF, librarian, CEO of Lio Messi International Property & Land Consultancy, international literacy worker, sports & peace promoter, dancer, singer, reciter, live telecaster, writer, editor, researcher, literary journalist, host, beauty queen, international coordinator of the Vijay Mission of Community Welfare Foundation of India.

ONESELF EXPERIENCES 

Human oneself experiences 

Happiness too Pain too

Sometimes tells some

Because these emotions

Experiences himself 

Happiness too 

Pain too 

Always stays inside 

Sometimes he is always happy 

Sometimes his throe stays in his.

ürkan Ergör, Sociologist, Philosopher, Writer, Poet, Art Photography Model. Türkan Ergör was born 19 March 1975 in the city of Çanakkale, Turkey. She was selected International “Best Poet 2020”. She was selected as International “Best Poet, Author/Writer 2021”. She was selected as International “Best Poet, Writer/Author 2022”. She was awarded the FIRST PRIZE FOR THE OUTSTANDING AUTHOR IN 2022. She was awarded the 2023 “Zheng Nian Cup” “National Literary First Prize” by the Beijing Awareness Literature Museum. She was awarded the “Certificate of Honor and Appreciation” and “Crimean Badge” by the İSMAİL GASPRİNSKİY SCIENCE AND ART ACADEMY. She was awarded the “14k Gold Pen Award” by ESCRITORES SIN FRONTERAS ORGANIZACIÓN INTERNACIONAL.

Suspension

What will I write in my poem?

And what will I say to you all?

When everything around us look so dry and gray

When smoky sound stops our breath

Our eyes close when we look outside

Nothing blooms to be gold

Nothing blooms to look at the rose

The black or white clouds are floating in the sky

No expected rain over there

Only suspension, hot or winter weather 

Always fills the green with something mournful to dear

The road is covered with snow

Thoughts are lying on the misty, snow-covered road

When the deaths and wounded are whispering with the angels

Then at the same time the earth is firing too much

How can I propose to my dear, “Love”

Love has been transformed to the unknown phase

Here nothing blooms to be gold

Nothing blooms to look at the rose.

Md. Mahbubul Alam is from Bangladesh. His writer name is Mahbub John in Bangladesh. He is a Senior Teacher (English) of Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh. Chapainawabganj is a district town of Bangladesh. He is an MA in English Literature from Rajshahi College under National University. He has published three books of poems in Bangla. He writes mainly poems but other branches of literature such as prose, article, essay etc. also have been published in national and local newspapers, magazines, little magazines. He has achieved three times the Best Teacher Certificate and Crest in National Education Week in the District Wise Competition in Chapainawabganj District. He has gained many literary awards from home and abroad. His English writings have been published in Synchronized Chaos for seven years.

Once when he was in grade ten in 1990, his Bangla letter was selected as the best one from Deutsche Welle, Germany Radio that broadcast Bangla news for the Banglalee people. And he was given 50 Dutch Mark as his award. They would ask letters from the listeners to the news in Bangla and select one letter for the best one in every month.     

From 17 to 30 September, in 2018 he received a higher training in teaching English language in Kasetsart University of Thailand for secondary level students through a government order from education ministry. 

On 06 November 2015 he achieved Amjad Ali Mondal Medal for his contribution in education field by a development organization in the conference and felicitation function for the honorable personalities at Rajshahi College Auditorium. 

On 30 December 2017 from West Bengal in India he was declared a ‘Literary Charioteer’ in Bangobandhu Literary and World Bango Conference and they awarded him with a Gold Medal in their International Literary Conference and Prize Giving Ceremony.

In 2018, he achieved Prodipto Lirerary Award in Prodipto Literary Conference at Kesorhat, Rajshahi for poems in Bangla literature. He received honorary crest from the administration of Chapainawabganj District Literary Conference and Cultural Function in 2021 and 2022 consecutively. 

His poems have been published in many international online magazines such as Juntos Por las L Raven Cage Zine, and Area Felix.  His poems have been translated and published in Argentine and Serbian, and he participated in many international online cultural meetings. 

A GOODBYE

It was stormy, cold day, autumn breezes were crashing against her window from time to time and Anne was sitting there without blinking her eyes like a statue in Plato’s academy of Athens, lost in the typhoon of her thoughts. Meanwhile, her mother knocked on the door.

‘’Anne be ready, your father is about to arrive, you have to go to the market’’

It shocked her for a while, she quickly placed her sketch book back in her tote bag, her eyes got captivated by her very own laptop, her ‘fantasia’. A river of tears, started to follow through her eyes. Today was the day, she had to go to market to buy a new laptop, as her ‘fantasia’ was no longer working. She had to replace it, although her heart was reluctant to idea of let go of her partner of years, with whom she shared her nights, days, her ideas, her laughter. It wasn’t easy for her to let go.

She took out her diary and began to write something, while tears flowed through her eyes:

‘I loved you as much as I love blue, as much as I love winter. You have been a piece of my heart for so long; no one can take your place. Fantasía. Goodbyes are hard, yet inevitable. Leaves grow from the stem, withstand so many winds, breezes, and storms, until they lose the stem and fall in late autumn. Spring returns with new leaves, but can they replace their predecessor? Just like the Deluge can’t replace the Big Bang. Wounds shed skin, yet when they heal, they leave a scar behind. Oceans dry up, yet they leave behind their remains. Nothing is replaceable. Everything holds a somewhat unique place in space, and this prophecy is eternal, long-standing, and as old as the tiniest particle in the universe.’’

She closed the diary with the hope that fantasia will always accompany her as memory of love and resilience. The storm outside had been silenced just like ashes of pain in her heart.

Fiza Amir is a Pakistani writer and poet, and a medical student by training. Her work grows out of hospital wards, history, and the quiet interior lives of people—where grief, compassion, and resilience meet. She writes with a spare, lyrical voice that turns lived moments into witness, believing that some stories survive only when they are written.