A River

River is a part of nature.

It is very important for our culture.

This is an irremovable thing for us.

It has many importance for us.

In our country,

We have many rivers.

Padma, Meghna, Jamuna are the biggest rivers. We have also many small rivers.

Mahananda, Atrai etc are the popular of them. In our country rivers don’ flow in a straight way.

These rivers flow in its own way.

These rivers provide us fish to eat.

That contains a lot of protein.

We can go many places easily by rivers.

That is very useful for us.

I think, if I can be one of the small rivers,

I will flow on my own way.

And make an own beauty of me.

Don Bormon is a student of grade 8 in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.

MY HEART

Don’t let it burn with longing,

Don’t spare, don’t let my heart turn to ashes,

Come back, this heart recalling you,

Let my heart love and rejoice!

Let me desire to reach,

Let my heart to return to the rain,

Let me to write epics, preach the gospel,

Let my heart to come ecstatic!

Oh Lord, do not oppress my heart,

Don’t beat in vain my heart,

Protect every moment of my infinite love,

Don’t mercy the wind my heart!

Refrain:

I’m dizzy to love you,

Leaving my heart,

You left it in ruins.

Swear to the Koran,

I am loyal to you,

I love you, my love.

NOAH or DREAM ark.

Having lived nine hundred and fifty years,

His is the Noah, he is a Prophet.

In order to protect from the storm

Receiving a revelation by Creator

He built a great ship.

Humans and animals all together

While being provided by water and food,

The life was created on this huge ship,

Everyone was satisfied with this act,

Humanity’s salvation was in this ark.

It is impossible to know the work of the heavens.

After all, a well is not filled by pouring water,

Roses nourished by love do not fade,

A sudden storm could not destroy 

Traces of the ship remain to this day.

Now no need for Noah’s ark

To ward off the troubles,

The “Dream Ship” of Human Intelligence

Floats in the sky, floats in the river,

Not anchored in the shallows.

The dream rushes in all directions,

You can go wherever you want,

You can laugh heartily,

You can ride this boat anytime,

It never ran out of fuel.

Everyone rides his own ship,

From the power of the dream,

Faithful hearts are happy,

Every desire, every wish in the blink of eye

It comes to life like a mysterious spell.

MY LOVE

If you hadn’t suddenly appeared in my path,

I wouldn’t freeze in place,

If you did not shoot arrows with your hidden gaze,

I would not let your love into my heart.

You were fascinated by my path,

You became a gardener planting flowers,

Like an angel on right and left of path,

You would stand guard as a soldier.

When the heartbeat increases,

I’m out of breath, I’m suffocated

When i realize the love,

It’s like I was born again.

Refrain:

Soothing my heart,

Falsely or truly,

You have always been,

The one who made me understand love,

Oh faithful kind sweetheart!

Elmaya Jabbarova was born in Azerbaijan. She is a poet, writer, reciter, and translator. Her poems were published in the regional newspapers «Shargin sesi», «Ziya», «Hekari», literary collections «Turan», «Karabakh is Azerbaijan!», «Zafar», «Buta», foreign Anthologies «Silk Road Arabian Nights», «Nano poem for Africa», «Juntos por las Letras 1;2», «Kafiye.net» in Turkey, in the African’s CAJ magazine, Bangladesh’s Red Times magazine, «Prodigy Published» magazine. She performed her poems live on Bangladesh Uddan TV, at the II Spain Book Fair 1ra Feria Virtual del Libro Panama, Bolivia, Uruguay, France, Portugal, USA.

God’s Justice

 We can not see god,

But our faith for him is a lot.

There was a man named Dharma-adikary,

He gave punishment to a bride’s father because of marriage.

The bride was low class and groom high class,

According to Dharma-adhikary it is a curse.

The punishment was in cultivating land play the role of cow,

The father had to grow crop in one year any how.

Playing the role one day the father became sick,

Mother said to God to give them justice.

 God came down to the earth as a stranger,

The stranger say “your nephew will marry a low-class, how danger!”

Dharma-adhikary say ,”How can it be possible, “

I will go there to disable.

 Dharma-adhikary and stranger left with a view to go there,

Suddenly their vehicle damage, stranger say a soraikhana is near.

There a father-in-law said that he got many gold from daughter-in-law,

He said to Dharma-adhikary about gold and show.

At night, the stranger transfer gold-bag to Dharma-adhikary,

In the morning, when they saw gold-bag missing they seem who can carry.

Searching his bag, everybody got him as a thief,

They all bit him and he couldn’t believe.

After some time the stranger came to him,

Getting him Dharma-adhikary said the stranger he needed some food,

They went to a cowboy for food but he was rude.

Stranger said Dharma-adikary will work instead of money,

Cowboy gave food and gave Dharma-adhikary the work of ghani (role of cow in the field).

Dharma-adhikary imagine his given punishment to other,

He understood his injustice and went to the father.

Dharma-adikary said to the father to forgive him,

All are astonished about Dharma-adhikarh and for them it was a dream.

The mother understood God’s justice,

They all became faithful, pray and practice.

Robiul Awal Esa is a 1st year student of Diploma in Nursing Science & Midwifery Course in  Government Nursing Institue, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.

AMULET

I once wrote a song about freedom. And I buried her deep below the threshold of the parents’ house.

Some neighbors saw it and they called me a witch, possessed by a demon. When everything was being killed and demolished, they fled under the frame of mine blue door and they begged me to summon all my spirits.

I put the paper down on the nearest palm, and it just said:

Freedom sometimes lies more peacefully underground, because it prefers free deaths to fears and sad human sighs.

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Azemina Krehić was born on October 14, 1992 in Metković, Republic of Croatia.

She is the winner of several international awards for poetry, including: Award of University professors in Trieste, 2019, “Mak Dizdar“ award, 2020, the award of the Publishing Foundation of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2021. Also, the “Fra Martin Nedić“ Award, 2022. She is represented in several international anthologies of poetry.

About loneliness

I was chasing a rabbit around the apartment

Throughout my whole dream last night

In a hurry I broke glasses in vain

And banged my head on the poles

The rabbit was always faster

That white noble rabbit with glasses

What would make the perfect pet

He always looked one step ahead

He didn’t smell and he wasn’t scary

When I saw that I was too short to catch him

I was looking for a hole to crawl into

Because there were never any magic potions in my house

That’s how I would trick a rabbit

Maybe he’ll follow me into a cool fairy tale

On the TV they broadcast devastating and relentless

spring rains

I should never have trusted the spring rain

Nor that there is a hole here in which I can save myself

Before I turned off the TV.

Before I woke up.

And drank the first morning coffee.

I don’t know why I’m smiling so much,

And the morning has just begun

It’s just that my siphon broke again.

And my home is being soaked in strange waters

Foreign worlds

You have no right to complain, I’m telling to mine

interlocutor for whom I prepared a cup of coffee.

Love, let’s go buy a rabbit

He answered before calling the repairman

You’re too lonely, and it’s been raining for days.

I’m afraid for you, he said before I could

say anything.

---

Emina Đelilović-Kevrić (Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina) After studying the b/h/s (Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian) language and literature at the Philosophical Faculty in Zenica she got her master’s degree on the subject “Memory construction in the South Slavic interlinear community: typical models of the war camp experience in literature.” She is the author of the poetry collection “This time without history” and the short stories collection “Erased lives.” Her collection of poems “My son and I” was awarded by the Publishing Foundation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2021. In 2022 she won the second place in the international literature competition “Isnam Taljić.” She is the winner of the second award for the best short story of the regional literature competition “Zija Dizdarević” 2022, and she won first place in international literature competition “Nastavi priču“. In 2023 she won third place in the international poetry competition “Ossi di Seppia“ in Italy.

LONGING

The whole world stopped in my eye, the most remote areas of untouched sandy shores and wild horses, everything unknown is known to me. I lost myself in searching for and approaching distances, so that i distanced my self farthest away from my self.

DANCE MAYA

Do not run ahead of your body with either mind or heart,

 don’t believe in fairy tales that are a creation of illusion,

 your step has clear coordinates

 Dance Maya only for God’s eyes.

WORDS

Words can hurt, words can lift you up and comfort you, but only words in the form of prayer can set the soul free.

Maja Milojković was born in 1975 in Zaječar, Serbia.

She is a person to whom from an early age, Leonardo da Vinci’s statement “Painting is poetry that can be seen, and poetry is painting that can be heard” is circulating through the blood.

That’s why she started to use feathers and a brush and began to reveal the world and herself to them.

As a poet, she is represented in numerous domestic and foreign literary newspapers, anthologies and electronic media, and some of her poems can be found on YouTube.

Many of her poems have been translated into English, Hungarian, Bengali and Bulgarian due to the need of foreign readers.

She is the recipient of many international awards.

“Trees of Desire” is her second collection of poems in preparation, which is preceded by the book of poems “Moon Circle”.

She is a member of the International Society of Writers and Artists “Mountain Views” in Montenegro, and she also is a member of the Poetry club “Area Felix” in Serbia.