Those who lie awake at night and say
Those who put aside the affairs of the world
Those who sacrificed their lives for their children
Mothers are great, my mother is great.
They cry when we cry, they laugh when we laugh.
May your kindness be the same for us.
They give knowledge to this tiny heart
Mothers are great, my mother is great.
Today, he did not turn away from giving love.
Mehrin didn’t fake poison.
May you live long.
Mothers are great, my mother is great.
The Remarkable Journey of an Aspiring Uzbek Youth: G’ayratbek Toshmuxamedov
G’ayratbek Toshmuxamedov, born on September 27, 2006, in Uzbekistan, is a talented and ambitious individual who has demonstrated excellence in both academics and athletics from a young age. His story reflects the spirit of the emerging generation of Uzbekistan—resilient, goal-oriented, and deeply committed to personal and national development.
From his early years, G’ayratbek showed great interest in sports and learning. His determination and hard work led him to achieve high honors in academic Olympiads, particularly in mathematics, physics, and information technology. He actively participated in numerous competitions and became a multiple-time winner, including twice securing first place in district-level IT Olympiads and once at the Andijan regional level.
His achievements in sports are equally impressive. G’ayratbek specialized in freestyle wrestling, where he earned several prestigious titles, including being a seven-time champion of the Andijan region, two-time champion of the Fergana Valley, and a national champion of the Republic of Uzbekistan. Additionally, he claimed multiple bronze medals at both regional and national levels. Expanding his athletic pursuits, he also trained in boxing and became the Uzbekistan boxing champion, while actively competing in tournaments held in Andijan.
However, in 2021, G’ayratbek faced a significant setback due to a physical injury, which forced him to temporarily step away from professional sports. Rather than allowing this challenge to halt his progress, he redirected his energy toward academics with even greater enthusiasm. This pivotal moment became a turning point in his life.
His academic journey is both rich and diverse. He began in a Russian-language school, later enrolling in a specialized institution focused on mathematics and physics. Eventually, he graduated from the Marhamat Specialized School under the Presidential Agency for Educational Institutions, an elite school dedicated to nurturing gifted students in Uzbekistan.
Currently, G’ayratbek is pursuing his undergraduate studies at Andijan State Institute of Technology, specializing in Information Systems and Technologies within the Faculty of Intelligent Control and Computer Systems. In addition to excelling in his studies, he actively engages in university life by organizing various events and intellectual competitions, demonstrating leadership and teamwork.
Despite his young age, G’ayratbek Toshmuxamedov embodies the qualities of a gifted programmer, a dedicated athlete, and a promising youth leader. His journey illustrates not only personal ambition but also the broader progress and aspirations of modern Uzbekistan. As he continues to grow and contribute to his community, his story serves as an inspiring example for other young people across the nation and beyond.
His academic interests, coupled with his discipline from sports, position him well for future achievements in both national and international arenas. G’ayratbek’s story is far from over—he is only at the beginning of a journey filled with potential and promise.
The Temperature
In one place of the world it rains
It rains much enough to grow the green
Living in peace
The opposite is firing in heat wave
Fire is burning furiously
As the human body the body of the earth is burning
It shrinks the atmosphere to lead
What does it mean the outer beauty of rain?
When the people of Gaza are falling in hunger
Fire snatches away the lives
As the little animals are crushed to the ground
In one part we sleep with sweet dreams
The other section is trapped in flame.
Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh
25 July, 2025.
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.
Peace
Speaking for food
Bombs are coming in my left
Bombs are coming in my right
The smell of a coffee becomes a dream
People are targeted
Suffering
Starvation
Hypocrisy the cry for freedom
Governments they are counting their money
Over the bodies of dead children
Do you want this life
How much Human you feel today
We are all victims in the mind of narcissist
men with power
Peace
Unknown word
EVA Petropoulou Lianou
Greece
“People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.”
James Baldwin
In this issue, we explore how people are influenced by their times and cultures, and how they learn from and engage with the thoughts of their forebears. Also, we acknowledge the wealth of wisdom and life lessons carried within each person due to the events through which they have lived.
Graciela Noemi Villaverde speaks to the inexorable and irrevocable passage of time.
Amit Shankar Saha writes of then and now, memory and future, remembrance and forgetting, universal human questions. Duane Vorhees’ poetry evokes change, thought, aging, and the creative process.
Stephen Jarrell Williams speaks to memory and the human experience. Eva Lianou Petropoulou speaks to artists and authors’ learning from and being inspired by each other throughout the ages. Writer Rizal Tanjung offers up an existential analysis of Eva Petropoulou Lianou’s poetry.
Giorgos Pratzigos interviews Konstantinos Fais on his artwork and advocacy for rediscovering Hercules and ancient Greek virtues. Muxlisa Khaytbayeva records her grandfather Jumaboy Allaberganov’s memories of knowing famed Uzbek author Omonboy Matjonov as a young adult and discusses Matjonov’s contributions to culture. Shukurilloyeva Lazzatoy Shamsodovna relates her scholarly and personal journey to understanding and illuminating Russian writer Alexandr Faynberg’s poetic legacy and its influence on Uzbek culture.
Kuziyeva Shakhrizoda highlights the Uzbek government’s investment in the nation’s youth and the incredible potential of their young adults. Otaboyeva Khushniya outlines how the psychology of early childhood can inform education. Su Yun collects and translates the work of Chinese elementary school students. O’tkirava Sevinch outlines strategies for learning Mandarin Chinese as a second language and for teaching the language in Uzbek schools. Olimboyeva Dilaferuz outlines verb conjugation rules in the Uzbek language.
Mashhura Farhodovna Joraqulova’s short story encourages students from low-income families to persevere with their education. Sevara Kuchkarova outlines strategies to motivate students to complete work at school. Rashidova Shaxrizoda Zarshidovna honors the life and work of a woman who mentored many of the girls at her school. Dilbar Aminova advocates for a balanced approach to screentime in young children’s lives. Shahnoza Ochildiyeva reflects on the value of her journalism education at an Uzbek university. Xo’jamiyorova Gulmira Abdusalomovna highlights the role of emerging and young poets in Uzbekistan’s national destiny.
Duane Vorhees compares the poetry of Phillis Wheatley and Nikki Giovanni as part of a broader comment on changing Black consciousness in the United States.
Cherise Barasch writes with respect for the hardworking people she observes digging into the earth in the heat. Yongbo Ma brings a poetic and scientific perspective to fog. Sayani Mukherjee contemplates peaceful natural scenes in a reverie. Priyanka Neogi compares accepting life’s changes to living through different seasons and times of day. David Sapp reflects on the transcendent experience of seeing a peacock. Dilnoza Islamova looks to nature’s beauty as an invitation to spiritual faith and practice. Maki Starfield sends up elegant reflections on weather and fruits in Thailand as Maja Milojkovic meditates on sunflowers, existence, and perseverance.
Brian Barbeito lets his mind wander to cosmological and existential places while walking near birds by a lake. Orinbayeva Dilfuza rejoices in the beauty of nature at springtime as Dilobar Maxmarejabova shares the emotional significance of tulips in her life. Don Bormon revels in the fun of rain at school. Mark Young renders up more of his fanciful “geographical” maps of Australian regions. Mathematics is a language we use to describe nature, and Timothee Bordenave discusses how his geometric studies inform his artwork. Mesfakus Salahin speaks to drought in Bangladesh in a meditation on accepting life and nature’s cycles.
Bruce Mundhenke urges humanity to turn away from hate towards love and acceptance. Vo Thi Nhu Mai illuminates the beauty and communicative power of the craft of poetry.
Leslie Lisbona sends up a childhood memory of having fun dancing to and figuring out rap lyrics. Marjona Baxtiyorovna Jorayeva celebrates sports and their fandoms and their power to bring enjoyment and bring people together.
Shomurotova Sevinchoy reflects on what it means to be a true friend. Munisa Ro’ziboyeva illuminates her appreciation for her mother’s care. Hamroyeva Shahinabonu Shavkatovna highlights the love and care both fathers and mothers have for their children. Rashidova Muallima offers up her love for her mother. Kamoliddin Hamidullah sends us a tender love poem. Thathanhally B. Shekara expresses his joy in romantic union with his beloved. Vo Thi Nhu Mai looks to wind as a metaphor for gentle connection among people.
Jim Meirose crafts a surreal piece in the language of fairy tales and dreams. Iduoze Abdulhafiz takes a lengthy journey through the subconscious with a wide selection of words. Dr. Maja Sekulic reviews Dr. Jernail S. Anand’s exploration of artificial intelligence, myth, and morality.
Kholmurodova outlines strategies to bring digital access and economic opportunities to the world’s rural women. Rakhimov Rakhmatullo outlines challenges and solutions for logistics technologies. Sa’dia Alisher outlines some benefits, problems, and challenges from modern digital technologies. Gulnora Rakhimjonovna Khomidova explores the educational potential of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Jernail S. Anand relates how, regardless of the tools we use to craft our work, restraint and discipline can serve as a creative force. Dr. Debabrata Maji highlights the power of perseverance and devotion. Azemina Krehic compares the care she has for her poetic works to the process of washing her clothes on a line. Hassan Mistura speaks to the journey of developing a healthy self concept. Surayyo Nosirova reminds us to let go of the illusion of more control than we have and to stay open to change.
Grant Guy offers up stage directions for absurdist theater, an artistic reaction to periods of rapid social change. Ahmed Miqdad speaks to the absurd persistence of normal life amid wartime. Mykyta Ryzhykh, in a similar vein, evokes the quest for queer love and sensuality among bombs and bullets.
Pat Doyne laments violent immigration enforcement overreach in Los Angeles. Otabayeva Khusniya reveals the deeply humane vision of Erkin Vahidov’s work Rebellion of Souls, a tribute to the memory of Nasrul Islam and other artists who died as a result of unjust persecution. Chimezie Ihekuna shares some of life’s paradoxes and urges nations and groups of people to move away from war as a solution to issues. Mahbub Alam also puts out a call for peace, remembering the many people lost to war. Boboqulova Durdona laments the many civilian deaths in Gaza as Stephen House highlights war’s effects on ordinary people, especially children.
Muslima Olimova reflects on surviving an unhappy marriage and urges families to welcome young brides and for women to carefully consider before marrying. J.J. Campbell speaks to the lingering effects of trauma on people and the tension between hope and disillusionment. Dr. Bindu Madhavi speaks to the inner battles many of us fight as Mirta Liliana Ramirez evokes the pain of loneliness.
Doug Hawley’s short story presents several characters representing a mix of lawful and roguish motives and actions. Taylor Dibbert’s poem lampoons the worldliness of a priest and the devotion it still inspires. Sarvinoz Sobirjonova Abdusharifova depicts the dual nature of humanity: kindness and cruelty.
Kelly Moyer uses vegetable humor to convey and navigate the experience of chronic illness. Alan Catlin frames evocative images with words, plumbing the imagined photos for meaning.
Mark Blickley, a combat veteran who finished education later in life, reflects on what he gained as a person and an artist from popular literature and reminds the “literary” crowd not to so easily dismiss popular writers.
They have banned GMOs in some places and are feeding me pesticides in the corpses of fruits
They came to my home and said that war is my homeland
Who are they? They are trying to bring me to death with the agony of despair
They won’t let me die in peace
They don’t even let me have sex get AIDS and hang myself
According to journalists, freedom is the destiny of those who fight
According to politicians I can’t be free to choose sex and parties
Throat cut by pink triangle with stars of David
The corpses of black migrants constantly float up in the clouds
The impotent importance of my house swells and will not burst
Europe falls asleep drunk on cheap alcohol with cocaine tears stuck to a torn cheek
No one wanted to fuck the hairy ass
The apartment is soaked with lonely sperm
He moved like a snake that saw a cute bunny
But everything around me was lonely
His long hair stuck to his sweaty shoulders
He stroked his buttock and looked out the window
You could see the whole yard through the glass
For example lovers were blatantly kissing near the entrance
Meanwhile the lights in the apartment went out
Out forever
I want to get burned by your hot dick and have everything around burn in the dark
every time I take my breath away at the sight of your lips and as before I want to kiss your cloud of body
the stars are spying on us but we are still at a distance from each other
the metal of your eyelashes hides your eyes and I’m trying to understand what’s hidden in your gaze
I’m waiting for a call I’m waiting for a look I’m waiting for a text message I’m waiting for a dick pic
meanwhile the years pass and I grow my roots into the grave soil
the house turns into a stomach that digest me
the burger blood of my body spreads across the parquet of time
I’m waiting for your arrival to me and your sweet words (I don’t even wait for intimacy or love anymore)
I sacrifice the silence of my home to you but you are silent
The river stays constant
Ophelia isn’t here anymore
There is no more poetry
I give you silence but you scream
the blade is in my hands for sure but you are very confused
I’m cutting your throat like bread
I need to feed on something other than hate
the sky above is blue like no one died
My impressions from Erkin Vohidov’s epic poem “Rebellion of Souls”
“Rebellion of Spirits” is a work written by Erkin Vahidov, a prominent representative of modern Uzbek literature. It is an epic poem about the Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. The work is composed of several legends and parts, which narrate the lives of characters who lived in different historical periods.
The poem is dedicated to the heroic and tragic fate of the fiery Bengali poet Nazrul Islam, who lived and worked in the first half of the last century. Nazrul Islam’s bitter fate served as a means for the poet to express the pain in his own heart. The poem “Rebellion of Spirits” is based on the life of this rebellious Bengali poet. The following lines by Nazrul Islam are used as an epigraph to the epic:
You were born free, forever
Be free!
Regarding the creation of this work, the poet himself says:
“If the task of a writer or poet were simply to narrate the life and adventures of a person, then there would be no easier craft in the world than writing. After all, a creator must artistically analyze the life and fate of their protagonist, and use that opportunity to present their own observations and reflections about life! The fate of my hero, Nazrul Islam, offered rich material in this regard. A difficult period of creative searching began. I had to abandon the initial draft of the epic, and after many attempts, the current version—presented to readers—emerged.”
Formally, the epic consists of an Introduction, a Tale about Eternity, five chapters, and a Conclusion. Each of the five chapters is divided into different stories and narratives:
In the first chapter: “The Poet’s Heart,” “The Song of Rebellion,” “The Tale of Selflessness”
In the second chapter: “Rebellion,” “The Tale of Ignorance”
In the third chapter: “In Captivity,” “The Tale of Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb”
In the fourth chapter: “Shadows,” “A Tale about Higher Spirits”
The fifth chapter includes: “Freedom,” and “The Tale of Ascetics and Mystics”
When analyzing the parts of the epic in terms of content, the following conclusions can be drawn: In the “Introduction” (Muqaddima), the poet describes human behavior and the turning points in their way of life. He emphasizes that each path has an entrance and an exit. Even life’s hardships can be avoided—but there is one feeling that is impossible to escape.
In the section “The Poet’s Heart,” the writer emphasizes: “The nature of your talent is rebellion.” The “Tale of Selflessness” highlights the bravery of those who did not accept injustice and violence on earth. It presents, for example, the ancient Indian custom of burning a wife along with her deceased husband. At the end of the tale, the poet calls people to fight for truth and emphasizes that one should not fear death on the path of justice.
At the beginning of the “Rebellion” part of the second chapter, the poet introduces it with the words: “Calcutta, 1926.” It depicts a conflict between Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta. Nazrul Islam was wrongly accused of inciting religious hatred, even though it was the invaders who had sparked the conflict. Nazrul’s only “fault” was that he openly spoke the truth to the people and tried to prevent the bloodshed. As a result, he was arrested. This part of the work teaches readers many lessons and encourages them to live with gratitude for the present.
Since the entire poem is dedicated to the memory of Nazrul Islam, the poet does not want to remain a silent observer of the injustices in Nazrul’s homeland. He remembers many others who have also been victims of injustice across the world. He repeatedly emphasizes that it is the ordinary person who suffers the most from the injustice and oppression present in society.
References:
Erkin Vohidov “Rebellion of Souls” – Tashkent. Nodirabegim Publishing House, 2020.
Nizomiddinov A.A. “Interpretation of character and social environment in Erkin Vakhidov’s epic “Rebellion of Souls” – “Central Asian research journal for interdisciplinary studies” 2022.
Norboyeva Sh.J., Ochilova N.U. “Sketches in the Fate of the Poet in the Work ‘Rebellion of Souls'” – “Scientific-Practical Conference of Young Scientists” – pp. 120-122.
Khusniya Sharofiddin qizi Otaboyeva was born in 2004 in a family of intellectuals in the Khonka district of the Khorezm region, Uzbekistan. She is currently a fourth-year student majoring in Primary Education at Urgench State Pedagogical Institute.
She is the author of more than 30 articles and 3 books and has participated in several anthologies and literary almanacs. A recipient of the prestigious Alisher Navoi state scholarship, she has demonstrated academic excellence and a deep commitment to educational and literary pursuits.
Otaboyeva is also the winner of numerous national and international competitions and an official member of various international organizations. She has been honored with multiple international diplomas, certificates, and medals. Her articles have been consistently published in leading journals and newspapers from countries such as Germany, Italy, Poland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Argentina.