Poetry from Elmaya Jabbarova

White woman with long black hair and a black blouse with flowers on it.
Elmaya Jabbarova

Healing

A noble heart for charity,

There is no malice or anger in him,

He always prays, holds good wishes,

Bitter words and hatred stay away from him.

The healing of ailments is from God,

A doctor on earth is one of the doctors,

Sometimes it’s for mysterious, magical reasons,

Miracles happen every day in the world.

A salve is a single word, a compassionate look

The ice melts, it rains heavily,

The artist’s brush makes a thousand patterns,

Wounds heal every day in the world.

May the dove of peace fly,

Let him erase the word War,

Have mercy on the stony hearts,

Let life go on every day in the world!

Elmaya Jabbarova was born in Azerbaijan. She is a poet, writer, reciter, and translator. Her poems were published in the regional newspapers «Sharginsesi», «Ziya», «Hekari», literary collections «Turan», «Karabakh is Azerbaijan!», «Zafar», «Buta», foreign Anthologies «Silk Road Arabian Nights», «Nano poem for Africa», «JuntosporlasLetras 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.

Poetry from Tuliyeva Sarvinoz

Central Asian woman in a tan sweater with flowers embroidered onto it and a blue dress and dark black hair in a ponytail speaking at a podium with a poster behind her and yellow balloons in front of her.

TIME IS A FLOWING RIVER

Everyone faces various difficulties and obstacles in their life. In such situations, a person sees himself as a helpless servant who can do nothing and becomes depressed.


So, what kind of people do you think can overcome difficult situations and endure difficulties?


“Behind every work there is good.” as they say, only people who believe in their knowledge and strength, who have full faith in their hearts, who strive forward despite any obstacles, will achieve success…


You can see someone’s life and achievements and say, “Oh, I wish I could achieve such achievements.”


But the work is not done with enthusiasm, it takes effort and self-confidence. Your goal in life is not to be like someone else, it is important to be yourself, to have your own place, your own self.
In this way, working tirelessly and acquiring new knowledge will help you.


Have you set a goal, try to achieve it! You can do it! You are a successful person! Move forward to great goals in life!

Tuliyeva Sarvinoz is the winner of the state award named after Zulfia (2019). She’s a teacher of native language and literature at Shaikhontohur District Vocational School, Tashkent and the author of the poetry books “Song of Peace”, “I am a Girl of Truth”, “Morning Poem”.

Poetry from J.J. Campbell

Middle aged white man with a beard standing in a bedroom with posters on the walls
J.J. Campbell

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
your dead father must be proud
 

flick a booger

across the room

 

somewhere in hell

your dead father

must be proud

 

i still catch a

glimpse of him

when i look in

the mirror or

i can hear him

when i start to

laugh at times

 

it takes everything

i have to not punch

glass or slit my throat

 

not every crisis

can be solved

with just a few

deep breaths

 

i have learned

over the years

 

a glass of something

strong and a woman

willing to put her heels

into the pit of your soul

 

can do the trick every

time
---------------------------------------------------------------------
a few years at least
 

trying not to stare

at this beautiful

black woman

with curves in

all the right

places

 

i have a little

time left before

i am truly a

dirty old man
----------------------------------------------------------------
an overpass down by the river
 
i am not looking

forward to dying

alone

 

but the odds aren't

in my favor of that

ever changing

 

i figure i might have

a few twists and turns

in the works,

 

but knowing my luck

 

that will include dirty

cardboard and living

under an overpass

down by the river

 

i'm probably a few

years away from

being a springsteen

song
---------------------------------------------------------------
where even the animals
 

you'd cry yourself

to sleep if you could

only find the tears

 

broken,

discarded

 

a blues song in a

gutter where even

the animals don't

dare to piss

 

she was this drop

dead beauty

 

soft, angelic skin

 

a laugh that immediately

made you feel safe

 

she'd kiss you like her

life depended on it

 

as usual in this too

busy fucking world

 

you lose touch

 

days become months

 

and one day you feel

the urge to check the

obituaries

 

caught dancing with

a train

 

holes in the carpet

 

tomorrow makes

no sense
---------------------------------------------------------------
agony says i love you
 

think of the pain

as a hug from an

old lover

 

she brushes her hand

across your jeans and

your heart begins to

flutter

 

of course,

 

the pain is never

like that

 

a large knife driven

into your soul, twisted

until agony says i love

you

 

they tell me i have

a high pain tolerance

 

not sure what good

that does me anymore

 

i would pray for death

but i have been disappointed

enough already

 

break out the watercolors

 

put on some john coltrane

 

pretend the talent is still there

 

how does one paint out

a depression

 

shallow lines on cardboard

 

exhaustion hopefully will win



J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) is old enough to know better. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at Horror Sleaze Trash, Mad Swirl, The Beatnik Cowboy, Disturb the Universe Magazine and The Rye Whiskey Review. His most recent chapbook, with Casey Renee Kiser, Altered States of The Unflinching Souls, is now out in the world. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)

Essay from Jorabayeva Ezoza Otkir

Central Asian teen girl with a long ponytail of dark hair and in a striped blouse with a black tie.

Water and fire 

Since time immemorial, the four elements of the world – water, fire, earth and air – have been highly revered among the people. According to the story, fire and water have their own history. Thousands of years ago, these two elements lived without conflict and respected each other. Water did not prevent the fire from burning cheerfully, did not extinguish it, and fire did not stop the water from flowing, did not evaporate it. Until feelings arise between them that other elements do not understand. This feeling that breaks the ties between them is Hate. Another elements analyzing this and the rest of they could not oppose this work, and they decided the Water that extinguished the Fire absorbed to the Earth, and the Fire that caused the Water to evaporate became incombustible without Air. Hate is such a subtle emotion that it can change the whole being. Hate is an emotion that leads to weakness and dependence and ends up being abstract. There is weakness as fire does not burn without air, and abstraction as water soaks into the soil.

Scientists say that all the objects around us are colorless. The green, red, blue and other colors that we see are all from our imagination. So, I want to say that how person looks to the environment, the environment looks like that to him. The positive and negative view is in our hands. They say that a cow collects milk and a snake collects poison from the same grass. If we make our thoughts and minds beautiful and enrich our thinking with wonderful things, we have the opportunity to make life beautiful not only for ourselves, but also for those around us. Therefore, as mentioned above, we should try to make our eyes and mind beautiful. Try what I said based on your own experience and may be you come to say “Thank you”.

Jorabayeva Ezoza Otkir was born on March 16, 2006 in Chirchik, Tashkent region. Secondary education. After graduating from the 28th general secondary school in the Qibray district of Tashkent region, in 2023 she became a student of the “Management of Culture and Art” field of the State Institute of Arts and Culture of Uzbekistan. participated with her article on the subject and was awarded with a certificate. In 2023, at the “Young border guards” military-sports competition held by the State Security Service of the Republic of Uzbekistan, she ran 100 meters and set a record with a result of 14.1 seconds, winning the nomination “The strongest girl”. 2nd place in the national stage of the “Patriots” military-sports competition among non-organized youth for the cup of the Minister of Defense under the slogan “Our National Army – in the eyes of the youth” for 2022, “Science researchers center” on December 20, 2023 took an active part in the “Student of the Year” competition, organized in cooperation with the scientific press center and the “Ziyoli pedagoglar” channel, and became the winner, awarded with a statuette and a certificate, within the framework of the 2024 neighborhood youth 5 initiative Olympiad, table tennis type of sport won the 1st place in the sector and district stages of the competition held on awarded. Her works have been published in international and republican magazines and newspapers.

Poetry from Don Bormon

Young South Asian teen with short brown hair, brown eyes, and a white collared shirt with a school emblem on the breast.
Don Bormon

Autumn

Autumn is a season of natural beauty

It comes after rainy season

Autumn is the third season of the nature

This is the season of flowers

This time clouds blow like cotton

Which creates a nice season

This time the wind blow gently

This wind also blows my mind

The river side fulfil with white flowers

This makes the nature look clean

We are always thankful to the Creator

For various types of seasons.

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

Prose from Brian Barbeito

excerpted from 

THE LINN JOURNALS (Luna, Indy, and Nova Notes, Dog Walking Documents)

(Sand and Stride)

Day Two, Part Two

Dirt trail out in the woods in a clearing on a sunny day. Trees are conifers with green needles and there are clumps of grass on the ground.
Mix of conifer and deciduous trees with green leaves and needles.
Two brown and white furry dogs walk along the forest path. Some green plants grow on the ground, leaves are scattered.

Walk long down there, and then up the hilly parts in the stone and sand, well wrought are the lands, green and the trees watch on. They seem taller today, and the overcast sky is gone and I can see the blue, the little clouds puffy and new. Breathe. Stretch. Queens Lace grows everywhere and there are places where the grasshoppers live and others that have dragonflies. Strange mushrooms to the side. A bee. A bird. A waving branch. Calm. Nobody is around. No souls.

I ask the lady, for it has arrived to me for some reason, ‘Who was that psychic that saw your grandmothers? And the one grandmother told the psychic that her posture should be better and the other grandmother…no…the same one had a bird, a parrot I think, that she kept in life, on her shoulder in the astral plane? I want to see her. I think I have a card somewhere. I also want to see spirit like that,- with plane eyes in everyday life…’ and the sun is strong for late day, and I am talkative suddenly, ‘…it is still summer, that is for sure.’

And we go far, determined, with a healthy and long stride, purposeful, happily or at least contentedly. The sumac is there, and the long and wide field briefly appears, side paths, more trees, a gravel way. We enter a turn that is full of purple flowers that grow somehow tall, to above knee height, taller than the others- they are intricate and strong, interesting and confident. They have each other, and live in large groups. ‘It’s as if on this turn, in this certain area exactly, everything pollinated or seeded and grew at at once,- w/the perfect mixture of the right soil and sun, rain and whatever it takes. Hey, want a soda cracker?. Do you know the other day I heard something in the bushes and stopped to see if I could see anything, and a large woodpecker jumped up and flew out?’

Eventually we turn that corner and begin the journey back. But it’s for the most part level ground. ‘It’s better to get the hilly parts done on the first half, when we are fresher and really setting out. Then just stroll back easily…’ and we do. It’s still bright for such a time a day. In the winter it will be dark at 5:30pm. We’d better take this while we can. In the summer I complain it’s too hot and in the winter I whine about the cold. Spring and autumn are my real times. Times of change and cool goodness and comfort. Liminal. Sweater weather as they say. But for now,- we better take it, better appreciate it, better go with it all…

Poetry from Alan Catlin

(Peg-leg) Frida

“They thought I was a surrealist
but I wasn’t. I painted my own reality.”

Self-Portrait in a Velvet Dress
With Necklace
With hair loose
With monkeys
With necklace of thorns
On the borderline between Mexico and U.S.
Portrait of Luther Burbank as hybrid: half man, half tree
Henry Ford Hospital or The Flying Bed: The Miscarriage
My birth
I suckle
Memory 
or the Heart
The Two Fridas with Cropped Hair
The Dream
or the Bed
Self-Portrait with Braid
Thinking about Death
Me and My Parents
Thinking of Diego
The Broken Column
Without Hope
The Wounded Deer
Nucleus of Creation
Flower of Life
The Last Embrace of the Universe
Marxism Will Give Health to the Sick
Death is a Friend
	
 
Remedio Varo: The Mexican Years: Reversed

Phenomenon of Weightlessness
Still Life Reviving
Spiral Transit
The Arid Path
Vegetable Architecture
Vegetarian Vampires
Phenomenon
Unsubmissive Plant
Embroidering the Earth’s Mantle
Woman Leaving the Psychoanalyst
To Be Reborn
Ascension to Mount Analogue
Disturbing Prescence
Mimesis
Encounter
Hairy Locomotion
(for a) Cancer Ward (the mural)
Farewell
Celestial Pablum
Creation of Birds
Vegetable Cathedral
Magical Flight
Star Catcher
Magical Flight
Star Catcher
Three Destinies
Discovering
Useless Science (The Alchemist)
Solar Music
Weaving of Time and Space
 
Extreme Art Material: Memorial Art Gallery (2006)

Particulate Matter (smog) on porcelain plate with gold enamel
Garden hose, nylon cable ties and steel
Carrot Wheel: carrots
Plaster, pigment, shipping tags and SUV exhaust
The Ruin: U.S. five-dollar bill erased
Colors in Water: Superior: recycled metal zippers
Found Portraits from the Cambodian Killing Fields of Tuoi Sleng
Small Island: Smoke on silver plated tray
Natatorium Cactus: Swimming pool cover and cable ties
Untitled: Pencil shavings
Treasure Map: found drug bags and thread (Philadelphia)
Metamorphosis: Human hair and glue
Allergy Series: Polyurethane and dog hair, Polyurethane and 
contents of vacuum bag
Untitled: Polyurethane and toilet paper, polyurethane and
	Cigarette butts, epoxy, and dryer lint
Topographic Solution: Fish skins, fishing line, pigment, and steel
Geography of Thought: Pennies and wire
I Wonder: Orange peel and waxed linen thread
Eggshells mixed with resin
Peach pits mixed with resin
Twister: Bones, glue, sealants, glass, and silver
Untitled: Hair and glue on canvas
Untitled: Duck Sauce packets
Untitled: Blood, gold leaf, resin, and clay on board
After Vermeer: 4,669 spools of thread, clear vinyl tubing, aluminum
	hanging apparatus, 4-inch clear acrylic sphere and steel stand
There’s No Comfort in the Truth: Recycled cassette tape
Gravity’s Rainbow: Paper collage, pills, hemp leaves, acrylic and
	resin on wood

 
Eccentric Lives and Peculiar Notions Scrambled

Charles and Marjory Johnson, Lancaster, CA, the last stubborn,
	flat earth doctrine defenders
Describing the community that dwelt within the earth
Miss Bevan as Nesta Webster author of spine-chilling accounts
	Of hidden forces beneath the surface of history
The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Never Told
Path  of the Pole: Cataclysmic Poles Shifting Alters Geology
Mind Control =World Control
The Bridge to Infinity
Liquid Conspiracy: Truth behind the acronyms: JFK, LSD,
	CIA, Area 51, and UFO’s
The Man Who Got Letters from Statues
Stones of the Temple of the Dragon erected by Welsh Druid
	revivalists
Lost Continents and Hollow Earth
Other Findings of Revisionist Geographer
Extraterrestrial Archaeology
Worlds in Collision
Occult Ether Physics
People with Holes in Their Heads
The Lost Teaching of Atlantic
Atlantis the Antediluvian World
Architects of the Underworld
Men and Gods in Mongolia
Photographs of “flying saucers around the mother ship”
The Ant-gravity Handbook
NASA, Nazis, and JFK
The Harmonic Conquest of Space
The Purpose, Intent and Overview of Extraterrestrial Visitations
Somewhere in the Night
The Fallen Sky
The Bomb that Fell on America

 
The Many Lives of Lee Miller (abridged)

As model
Nude studies as a full developed teenager by her father
Work as a fashion designer
Controversial Model for first Kotex Ad
Solarized by Man Ray
Her Work as a Photographer
As a subject of Surrealists
As a Surrealist
Man Ray’s Nude Bent Forward was Lee
The shadow pattern on her torso by Man Ray
Breakfasting in bed reading with Tanja Ramm beneath a wall 
	hanging by Cocteau
The lips for Man Ray’s iconic The Lovers
Portrait Photographer of Gertrude Lawerence
Josephy Cornell superimposed with ne of his many objects
Sel-Portrait as Fashionista
Married in Egypt shooting frame from the top of Great Pyramid
Her Portrait of Space inspiration for Magritte’s, La Baiser
The Picasso Abstract Portrait of Lee
Literally charming snakes in Egypt 1938
Her suggestive (erect) Cock Rock (formation)
Duty calls as a War Correspondent in Europe
Glum Glory in her uniform off to document the war
Posed at the entrance of an Air raid shelter with mask, eye shield 
	and air raid danger warning whistle
A “non-conformist chapel” as rubble
Bombed out, “Bridge of Sighs” London
Shattered roof of University College reflected in pool of rainwater
Henry Moore in a suit sketching in Holborn underground station
	While Londoners huddle beneath blankets trying to sleep
Emergency field surgery, Normandy
Lee in uniform in Picasso’s liberated studio, Paris
Colette, Aged 71, embroidering in her apartment
Moroccan troops outfitted for winter in snow, Alsace
Dead soldier, “There is a good German. He is dead!”
Suicide daughter of Burgermeister, Leipzig reclining on a couch
Statues covered by camouflaged nets make a landscape like a 
	Painting by Yves Tanguy, Germany 1945
Among the first to enter the camps: Dachau dead, 1945
Lee bathing in Hitler’s bathtub, Munich 1945
Lee dressed as Marcel Duchamp’s Mona Lisa at a party c)1954
After she died her son found trunks of her work stored in the attic,
He had no idea she had been a photographer