WORDS OF PAIN

Tonight I fought

with two sharp words…

that I said in ignorance,

they shone through the night

reminiscent of scrolls.

I had a strange dream

crucified, covered in blood…

It reminded me of Jesus

and his first step.

I wasn’t to blame

only that the blade of my tongue

fell awkwardly,

damned painful and

damned alive,

an innocent word

came to pain

me…

Should I be mute,

then you won’t hurt anyone.

The first drop fell tonight

did the rain drown me?

Or was it a tear of pain

that was pouring down beside the table…

I put those two words together again

I feel the pain groaning…

Forgive me, God,

may they come together correctly.

Time erases words

only deeds remain,

I didn’t want to, I know I didn’t,

I didn’t want to say them.

Milka J.Šolaja, Belgrade

MILKA J. ŠOLAJA, born in Korenica, Republic of Croatia. Lives and works in Belgrade. She has been writing poetry since her high school days. So far, she has published 11 independent poetry collections: “If I Were a Bird”, “Dreams in the Mirror”, “Between Reality and Sleep”, “Traces Will Remain”, “Black and White World”, “I Think Your Hands Are Yours”, “A Tear from Stone”, “I Was Born Alone” and two co-authored poetry collections: “I Dream with Verses” and “My Dreams Written in Verses”, published by “Kulture Snova” from Zagreb. 

The eleventh poetry collection “I Am This I Am” is in preparation for publication, as well as the autobiographical novel “Walking on the Edge”.  She writes love, homeland, descriptive, reflective, spiritual and poetry for children. Translated into English, Hungarian, Bengali, Spanish, Greek, Odia, Arabic…

Award-winning, represented in many anthologies, monographs, collections and magazines, both domestic and international. Some poems are composed. Member of: Serbian Writers’ Association, Literary and Artistic Union “Vlaho Bukovac” from Split, “Culture of Dreams” from Zagreb, Institute for Children’s Literature in Belgrade. She is also a member of several International Groups, Forums and Academies for Poetry and Literature, where she has received a large number of awards. 

I, OTHER

You are silent

and silence is a mess,

like a house,

where thieves have entered

and the chairs have turned their legs.

The garden is early autumn

that undresses the trees

like a poet undresses the world,

without permission.

You are silent,

and in the room I remain,

other.

Athens, June 8.2025

E.D.Ifandi

Ermira D. Ifandi was born on June 3, 1975, in Fratar, Mallakastër. She graduated from “Eqrem Çabej” University in Gjirokastër, with a degree in “Teaching for the Lower Primary Cycle.”

For nearly two decades, she has lived with her family in Athens, Greece, where she continues to maintain a strong connection with the Albanian language, culture, and literary creativity, turning words into a bridge between two cultures. She has participated in literary competitions organized by Radio Tirana and has published her literary works in local newspapers in Gjirokastër and Tepelenë.

Publications

Albanian–Greek bilingual poetry collection entitled:

ÇAST – ΣΤΙΓΜΗ

Her literary work has been recognized and praised by well-known critics and writers such as Robert Martiko, Luan Rama, Agon Halabaku, and Margarit Done.

Studies and critical works on her poetry have been included in the following books:

“Kur toka flet me qiellin” by Robert Martiko.

“Në zemër të fjalëve” by Margarit Done.

She has been included in several literary anthologies, including:

“Stina poetike”, selected by Pëllumb Troçi.

“NA bashkoi poezia”, among others.

Her work has been published in:

CavaliereNews Magazine, 

Elmasar El-Arabi Magazine,

POLEART Magazine, Destinacioni Newspaper, Letraria Newspaper, Ciceroni Newspaper, Vlera Magazine, Miriade Magazine, Qendra Press, Albania Press, Nevvsin.al, VVINDOVV.AL, and others.

THE HUMBLE PEASANT

They spend their whole lives, opening with their hands, the furrows of new lands. The emerald green field, the blue sky of your eyes, you never turn your back on it, you begin happily, your arduous task. Sowing seeds, and waiting for the rain, man of the countryside, you who look at the sun, with your bronzed face. Your forehead sweats and perspires, from such hard work, your hands have become calloused, you worked hard and long. The sun, the earth and the water, are weapons of a great destiny, reaping the fruits is the humble peasant. 

Nidia Amelia García, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a writer and an activemember of Juntos por las Letras (Together for Letters). She has participated innumerous virtual events in Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Spain, Colombia,Portugal, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and elsewhere. She has also contributed to literary anthologies such as “Books of the Immortals” and “Anthology of the 50 Poets of the World 2022.”

I will not be lame

You will stay asleep! 

down to stay with broken!

To try to get rid & rising of, 

Carry with pain of grasp. 

After the effort, with the stick of the mind,

The mind grabs the power of the mind. 

Deep from the reward,

Get up in the power of standing up.

Man’s pain, the lame bent, 

Will give up the mind, 

to stop the speed of mind and lose,

The people will come in the way.

Do not want to work, 

where there is a story of cant, 

broken heart looking for a good way,

to be a new mind to be fresh mind. 

The mind is lame, all work is lame,

The mind is strong, stomach work. 

In the desire to stand up, 

The mind of the mind is a molecular insolence. 

I will not be lame, the mind will run,

The mind is running within the Marathon, 

Give the ashes to the face of enemy, 

Feel free to laugh.

In the promise of having  colourful,

The strong oil is in the massage,

From itself to Itself to understand, Standing,

Strengthen, in Future for show to with mind in freedom.

Amb. Dr. Priyanka Neogi is from Coochbehar. She is an administrative controller of United Nations’ PAF, a librarian, a 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 co-ordinator of the Vijay Mission of Community Welfare Foundation of India.

THE BEAST

Her words are weapons and wounds,

against the cruel and for the hurt.

Against the world that never cuddled her,

for you cannot deceive a beast:

Cuddled at first,

then ruthlessly trampled!

The world is the one that must learn new rules:

how to bow before the wisdom of a beast.

Milena Pčinjski, MA – Biography

Milena Pčinjski (Милена Пчињски) was born on October 28, 1986, in Prokuplje, Republic of Serbia, and currently resides in Ćuprija. She holds a master’s degree in English Language and Literature. She is recognized as an international poet who writes in both Serbian and English. Her poetry has been published in numerous collections and anthologies of contemporary Serbian literature, as well as in international and online poetry compilations. Her poems have been translated into English, Hungarian, Russian, Romanian, Bengali, and Finnish.

She is a member of several book clubs in Serbia and regularly participates in literary events and poetry competitions. In 2025, she published her poetry collection Verses Imprisoned (Заробљени стихови). She works as an online English professor and also serves as a translator and editor for Area Felix, an international Serbian e-magazine dedicated to creative literature and culture. Additionally, she is a proofreader for the Association of Writers –SKOR, where she also serves as the President for the Pomoravlje Region.

Her collection Verses Imprisoned was awarded the Honorary Silver Diploma by the Orthodox Cultural and Artistic Almanac Arina NN in Nizhny Novgorod in 2025. Milena is an honorary member of the International Advisory Board of the Academy of Farsala in Greece, as well as of the Global Literary Society, where she received a Certificate of Appreciation for „her excellent contribution to the Global Movement of Positive Literature” from Bhagirath Choudhary, the founder of the organization. She is currently preparing her second poetry collection.

Mother

You are the first land our feet tread,

the sky that stays awake when night falls.

You are not only the one who gives life,

but the refuge where life learns not to fear.

Your voice is the wind that straightens the ears of corn,

your embrace the harbor where any storm calms.

You hold in the palms of your hands the sun that warms us,

and in your gaze, a horizon that never closes.

You carry in your heart a garden that knows no winter,

where the strength you lack grows.

You are the memory that sustains us,

the invisible thread that, even when we stray,

never breaks.

Sometimes you are a river that runs silent and deep,

sometimes a mountain firm against any gale.

Always the same love, rooted, made home,

made all that makes us human.

 And when the world weighs too heavily,

all I have to do is return to you,

to find my way again,

to find peace,

to find the place where I am whole.

GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE is a writer and poet from Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Rios) Argentina. Based in Buenos Aires, she graduated in letters and is the author of seven books in the poetry genre, awarded several times worldwide. She works as World Manager of Educational and Social Projects of the Hispanic World Union of Writers, and UHE World Honorary President of the Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. She’s a Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet in the Educational and Social Relations Division of the UNACCC South America, Argentina Chapter.

Here Is My World

Within this realm lies a secret profound,

A silent whisper, lost and unfound.

Here bleeds a wound that no one can see,

Yet here blooms a smile, wild and free.

Welcome to the sanctuary I call my own,

Where the architecture of my soul is shown.

It is built from the dust of quiet prose,

Formed from the ashes where no fire glows.

Strung with pearls of courage, fierce and bright,

Guided by eyes that hold tomorrow’s light.

Fashioned by the very breath of verse,

For poetry speaks truth to the universe.

Nassira Nezzar participated in many international anthologies. She is also a famous reciter. She recites poems in Arabic, English, French, Spanish, Italian, Turkish, and other languages and publishes them on her YouTube channel.