THE BURNING BOAT

I had burnt my boat

When I crossed the sea

I was then alone

Only my shadow witnessed it

Now, the stink of burning only I can smell

The burnt mark is visible to those

Who have sparks in their eyes

I am carrying the sea and burnt the boat within me

My boat was burning

There on the sands of seashore

Since then with the every tide

Sea attempts to put out the fire and

Wash off my burnt boat

Even for the high tide, it’s not possible to do so

My heart is burning in separation of my beloved

It’s pangs are too intensive

My blanket cannot properly cover my body

To extinguish the fire

The sea is nothing but my vast body

My toes are touching the sea bed

My boat is my heart within – the Sun on the sky

Smokes come out all over in my mind

My hairs turned into ashes grey

By the heat of my burning heart

It seems, my heart can’t meet;

Can’t make reunion with my beloved

Till the sea of my body gets dried out

O, my Lord!

How long I will have to wait

To show you my burning heart

Alas…!

WOMAN, BEYOND THE INDEX OF BODY

Lake like eyes/ Scarlet coral-like lips/ Curly-curvy hairs

Attraction all four directions

These are mazes

Face and physical charms are curtains, indeed

A weapon to keep off you from the desired abode

A true woman lives in somewhere else

Beyond the index of her body

Sitting crouch like a recluse

Just like an abstract thing

Like a dream of snow-white clouds

Sometimes, similar to the moonless dark night

Dormant lightening, full of its potency

Extremely tough meditation is needed

To open her inner layers of heart,

Love is considered to be the genuine pearl of a woman

This can discover by proceeding beyond her body

Otherwise, nothing lies in the whirlpool of body

Man wants to overpower

The screaming body of a woman

But the body is a dune of sands/ a fair of desires

There is only mirage and mirage

Woman uses to be hidden,

Somewhere in her inner self,

Instead of, being found in her apparent body

Which is like an epic center of a live volcano

A man in his entire life

Uses to run after fascinating faces

Like those idiot men

Who on the surface of the water

Often, stare at diving and floating waves

With their curious eyes

Use to play, the whole day, with shells lying on beaches

Perhaps, they do not know

That the true pearls are senselessly lying

In the depth of a sea,

Where the breathes not much support the divers

To achieve such unknown pearls in the deep sea

Needed to wait till the lips of shell get opened

To get the original element of a woman

You will have to raise the curtain of deceitful face

You will have to step down

In to the concealed room of her heart

You will have to knock and knock again

At the tightly closed window of her soul

A woman is not a thing of luxury

Not a commodity of marketing

Not even a body of only bone and flesh

The true name of a woman is ——

Love, love, and only love!

Dr. Perwaiz Shaharyar is a Consultant Editor (Urdu) in National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), Ministry of Education, Government of India. He had been Principal Publication Officer in National Council for Promotion of Urdu Language in 2007. He has been, a member of Advisory Board of National Book Trust India.

He is a Multilingual (English, Hindi and Urdu) famous poet, short story writer and critic from India. He is Graduate with English Honours from Ranchi University. He has topped Jawaharlal Nehru University in Masters with Literature. He was awarded Doctor of Philosophy for his Research Work from University of Delhi. He is Post Graduate Diploma holder in Calligraphy, Mass Media and in Book Publishing with Specialization in Editing.

Dr. Perwaiz Shaharyar began writing his poems in English since lockdown in the period of Pandemic COVID-19. He has written more than 100 poems, participated in many worldwide webinars and published in various international anthologies, so far. His as many as 25 poems have been translated by many award-winning litterateurs into Polish, Indonesian, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Bengali, Hindi, Portuguese, Italian, Korean, and Albanian languages. His poems are being published in several anthologies within the country and abroad. He has 20 published books of literature in his credentials, so far. He has won many awards and accolades for his outstanding intellectual and literary contributions. His poem ‘The Burning Boat’ contains mystic (Sufism) and metaphysical elements.

Lilies

In the car, flying on cruise control,

on this desolate stretch between anything,

everything a dizzy blur, the rush,

the rush, a violence to the senses,

a glimpse of swift efflorescence,

I know each petal is there,

placed as it should be, precariously

riding the hump of the ditch between

vast expanses of alfalfa and asphalt,

these daylily hobos, fast, vivid saffron,

tangled with flushed morning glories,

violet clover, pale blue chicory,

the eyes of tow-headed children,

and elegant, white Queen Anne’s lace –

when you break a stem, there’s

a sharp, unexpected scent of wild carrot.

In this fugacious instant,

somehow I know, I know these lilies

want my adoration, calling me,

stamens vibrating in long throats,

quite willing to share their joy.

Why don’t I turn around,

turn off the motor and

listen for just a little while,

their troupe crooning hue at the sky?

I’ll lie alongside them in soft

wheatgrass, and together we’ll  

bide the gentler sounds of night.

Which destinations shall I neglect,

vague acquaintances or these dear chums?

When I think of them, alone, untended,

I want to acquiesce, relinquish

any passion to a high shelf

for someone much younger to find.

I can’t help this weird, bygone empathy,

doting, hoary around the fringes:

when the rain comes, cold and rigid,

will I fret over these blossoms,

lips pursed, pouting for lack of sun?

When the apprehension of winter comes,

inevitably comes in frost then ice,

will I mourn these lilies,

will I feel their dread,

will I rush to my beloved?

In the Snow

I regret neglecting

The egrets last summer

Mindlessly oblivious to

White against emerald

Viridian chartreuse

Stepping shyly in the marsh

And just yesterday

Snowing and snowing

I wish I’d spent

An afternoon peering

Through the window

(Debussy in my ears no

A Chopin Mazurka)

Blue-gray atmosphere

Obscurity on the horizon

A sky brimming with

Falling singularities more

Crystals than space between

I knew this beauty

Was infinitely transient

Considerably more pertinent

Than fabricating drudgery

My bloated memoranda

Tell me tell me

(I do not insist

A modest desire

A desperation nevertheless)

There must be a place

Where I might see

Egrets taking flight

In the snow

Noble

The name of the Noble is very famous,

The stir also varies, the quality is also full.

Noble -In the quality of the job & purpose,

“With the good will of the behavior of the use,”

Move in the pearl method.

To create a beautiful chain,

In the display of the chain, the rules of the chain,

The stars are also expanded in the thought,

In the description of magnanimous generosity,

In destiny in the inflamed shrimp,

In setting the example in infinity.

The family exemplifies the “Noble Family”,

In the mutual respect of each member of the family It will be possible.

Noble mentality, noble presentation,

Noble dedication,

Noble expression should create noble looking.

Noble’s touch in Smartness,

To handle yourself at the noble.

To keep yourself wrapped in the noble,

whole life lives in noble

Amb. Dr. Priyanka Neogi from Coochbehar. She is an administrative Controller of the 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 Co-ordinator of Vijay Mission of Community Welfare Foundation of India.

Hwa-byung

Hwa-byung will make you
yell at your children
fight with your family
go all red in the face
leap from your chair
shaking knuckled fists.

This rising heart fire 
takes hold of you:
poor and uneducated
a stuck-at-home wife.

Hwa-byung will ruin
your eating and sleeping
grinding on old grudges
seeping anger in rages
too long suppressed.

The rising heart fire
takes hold of men too:
frustrated, mortified
bad jobs with bad bosses
who don’t show respect
who reek of injustice
until you smolder inside.

Hwa-byung is Korean
for a mental disorder
that may afflict anyone
who withholds their anger
that builds in intensity
burns its way out
bursts through walls
tears down framing
explodes like a bomb

hollowing you out
in ways you don’t expect.

NOTE:
Once classified under depressive disorders, hwa-byung is a culture-bound condition found only in Korea. It was thought to be limited to disgruntled housewives with passive husbands and overbearing in-laws. It is now being diagnosed in male employees who are full of anxiety, nihilistic ideas, and regret about their lives.

No Joke

On lovely Lake Victoria
on the border with Uganda
three female students
at a missionary boarding school
began to laugh and laugh

and they couldn’t stop
and they didn’t stop
and more students joined in
and they couldn’t study
and they couldn’t eat
and they couldn’t sleep
and they couldn’t do anything
but laugh, laugh ’til it hurt
’til they were in pain and
crying between laughing jags
so the school closed down.

When school opened back up
the laughing started back up
so the school closed down.

Some girls arrived home
in their small rural villages
still laughing and laughing
and village girls laughed too
some boys, some adults
and it spread, and spread
to more than 200 people
laughing and laughing
for more than a year

and the experts blamed
the emotional dissonance
of a radical cultural shift
from tribal communities
to a modern way of life.

Laughter is said to be
the best of all medicines
but must always be taken
in a moderate dose.

NOTE:
The laughter epidemic was a mass psychogenic event that occurred in Tanganyika in 1962, soon after the country achieved independence. Schoolgirls brought the illness home to their villages and it spread wildly before disappearing.

The country is now known as Tanzania.

The Witches of Leroy

A pretty cheerleader fell down
and that’s how it all began
in the upstate New York town
that invented jiggly Jell-O.

She screamed and flailed about
cursing as if possessed
cuss words she’d never say…
she was not that kind of girl.

Her best friend suddenly ticced
convulsing, crazed, she ran wild
and sixteen other girls in town
swearing, thrashing, crashing
got rushed to the hospital
their parents hysterical
the ER in chaos
the nurses, doctors puzzled
as testing found no cause.

A rumor began to circulate
about a toxic spill
from a train derailment
but testing showed no toxins
on the high school grounds.

Erin Brockovich was invited
to speak and attract the media
declaring a chemical poisoning
with opinion taken as fact.

But why only teenage girls?
From chemicals miles away?
Spilled four decades prior?
Before the girls were born?

Time slid by as it always does
the parents demanding answers
accountability and recourse
long after their girls recovered
left for college and life away
from the town that created Jell-O.

NOTE:
Mass outbreaks of psychogenic illnesses have occurred in schools in many parts of the world. These events used to happen in convents and were once deemed satanic. Religious and shamanic interventions were employed when illnesses were medically inexplicable.

In the modern world, mass anxiety hysteria (acting crazy) and mass motor hysteria (sleeping sickness or convulsions) are social phenomena without identified physical pathology. Outbreaks are usually limited to the young and are believed to be triggered by issues in the community: emerging sexuality amidst social repression, poverty, dislocation, hopelessness.

蹬车者

我好奇他能拾到什么

面对着蒿草的隐没

他只能伸手去摸索

我后背着手走过

风从跌宕的日子里带来七嘴八舌

将我推近去看他的战果

存留在染泥的三轮车

烂炮纸与旧车链

不如拾一把蒿草点了火

不如拣几块砖头堆住所

不久他挺起身子举起新找的斧戈

生锈的颜色却能斩断绳索

斩断他以住生活里缠上身的绳索

他转身还举起另一件战果

不会关闭的留声机抚耳以音波

我祈愿它永远唱着歌

一方出声万林和

一人欢心万鸟乐

红炮纸和旧车链扬开苦涩

击开七嘴八舌

开阔的前路告诉我

有一颗燃烧的心何需点火

有一辆随性的三轮车何需住所

The Cyclist蹬车者

What treasures he might unearth

amidst the weeds’ retreat

His hands fumble through the shadows

While I observe with clasped hands

Winds carry whispers from turbulent days

Drawing me closer to witness his discoveries

Displayed upon his mud-spattered tricycle

Faded firecracker remnants and weathered chains

Perhaps better to gather weeds and kindle flame

Perhaps better to collect stones and build refuge

Soon he rises, proudly holding his newfound weapon

Rusty in appearance, yet sharp enough to sever bonds

To cut free from the entangling ropes of existence

He turns, revealing another prize

A broken phonograph, still breathing melodies into the air

I hope its song continues eternally

When one voice rises, 

forests echo in harmony

When one heart finds joy,

 birds join in celebration

Discarded firecracker papers and chains release bitterness

Silencing the chorus of critical voices

The open path before us reveals this truth

A heart already aflame needs no spark

A free-spirited tricycle needs no shelter

Su Yun, 17 years old, is a member of the Chinese Poetry Society and a young poet. His works have been published in more than ten countries. He has published two poetry collections in China, namely Inspiration from All Things and Wisdom and Philosophy, and one in India titled WITH ECSTASY OF MUSINGS IN TRANQUILITY. He has won the Guido Gozzano Orchard Award in Italy, the Special Award for Foreign Writers in the City of Pomezia, and was praised by the organizing committee as the “Craftsman of Chinese Lyric Poetry”. He has also received the “Cuttlefish Bone” Best International Writer Award for those under 25.

我也想庆祝夜的生日

河北省石家庄市藁城区工业路小学 苏墨琰 10岁

夜的生日什么时候开始

小飞蛾趴在玻璃上提醒我

天空已摆好月亮蛋糕

插上星星蜡烛

蟋蟀和纺织娘开始歌唱

树叶哗啦啦鼓掌

风送来花香

灯光献上祝福

就连梦也和夜视频通话

祝他生日快乐

我也想庆祝夜的生日

其实，我趴在窗前

已经悄悄地帮他

关掉太阳

I Also Want to Celebrate the Night’s Birthday

By Su Moyan, 10 years old, Gongye Road Primary School, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

When does the night’s birthday start?

The little moth on the glass reminds me

The sky has set up a moon cake

With star candles inserted

Crickets and katydids start singing

Leaves applaud rustlingly

The wind sends the fragrance of flowers

Lights offer blessings

Even dreams have a video call with the night

Wishing him a happy birthday

I also want to celebrate the night’s birthday

In fact, I lean by the window

And have quietly helped him

Turn off the sun

窗帘

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 薛润楠 9岁

风是个捣蛋鬼

把我们教室的窗帘

一会儿变胖

一会儿变瘦

胖窗帘像个孕妇

同学从窗帘后面

探头走出来

胖孕妇秒变瘦妈妈

Curtain

By Xue Runnan, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

The wind is a troublemaker

It makes the curtain of our classroom

Now fat

Now thin

The fat curtain is like a pregnant woman

When classmates peek out from behind the curtain

The fat pregnant woman instantly becomes a thin mother

春天的火车

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 李思锦 9岁

花朵是春天的火车

一开动火车

就听到一阵阵香的震动

Spring’s Train

By Li Sijin, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Flowers are spring’s train

As soon as the train starts moving

We hear bursts of fragrant vibrations

月光走秀

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 薛嘉一 9岁

月光

穿上雪白的裙子

像一位白雪公主

在人间走秀

忽然

她跌倒了

月光碎了

月光花开了

Moonlight Fashion Show

By Xue Jiayi, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Moonlight

Puts on a snow-white dress

Like a Snow White

Walking a show on earth

Suddenly

She stumbles

Moonlight shatters

Moonlight flowers bloom

抢龙珠

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 薛舜兮 9岁

夕阳西下

几缕云围着落日

像极了几条龙

在抢一颗龙珠

Snatching the Dragon Ball

By Xue Shunxi, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

As the sun sets

Several wisps of clouds surround the setting sun

Just like several dragons

Snatched a dragon ball

美丽的雪花

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 马崡旭 9岁

冬天

雪花打扮得

漂漂亮亮的

她们穿上洁白的裙子

跳着洁白的舞蹈

讲着洁白的故事

Beautiful Snowflakes

By Ma Hanxu, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

In winter

Snowflakes dress up

Prettily

They put on white dresses

Dance white dances

Tell white stories

小鸟

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 薛畅 9岁

窗外的小鸟

学着我们的样子

叽叽喳喳读课文

我们停下来

它们还在读

老师宣布

小鸟读得最快乐

Birds

By Xue Chang, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Birds outside the window

Learn from us

Chirping and reading textbooks

When we stop

They keep reading

The teacher announces

Birds read the happiest

花朵上的雨滴

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 刘怡杉 9岁

乌云开工了

用自己国家的小水晶

给花朵们穿上

自己亲手制作的水晶鞋

Raindrops on Flowers

By Liu Yishan, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Dark clouds start working

With small crystals from their own country

Dress the flowers

In crystal shoes made by themselves

花梦

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 薛子航 9岁

把我的灯关了

把我的门关了

把我的耳朵关了

把我拉进花的梦中

给我一个清醒的鼻子

Flower Dream

By Xue Zihang, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Turn off my lights

Close my door

Shut my ears

Pull me into a flower dream

Give me a sober nose

热闹的秋雨

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 顼艺安 9岁

小雨滴在天上乱跑

落下的时候

还在叽叽喳喳地叫

来到地面又开始聊天

好热闹的秋雨

Lively Autumn Rain

By Xu Yian, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Little raindrops run wild in the sky

When falling

They still chirp and shout

When they come to the ground, they start chatting again

What a lively autumn rain

小蜜蜂住酒店

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 韩鑫佑 9岁

沙沙沙

下雨了

被雨淋湿的小蜜蜂

急急忙忙钻进一朵小花

甜甜的花酒

美美的花床

小蜜蜂

躺在花朵酒店里

睡着了

Little Bees in the Flower Hotel

By Han Xinyu, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Shasha Sha

It’s raining!

Little bees soaked by the rain

Hurry into a tiny flower—

Sweet flower wine,

A beautiful flower bed…

The little bees

Lie in their flower hotel

And drift off to sleep.

猫与云

河北省石家庄市藁城区贾市庄镇贯庄小学 薛梓阳 9岁

一到阴天

小猫就害怕出门

因为云朵的眼泪

让它担心

自己柔软的皮毛

会被云要回去

Cats and Clouds

By Xue Ziyang, 9 years old, Guanzhuang Primary School, Jiashizhuang Town, Gaocheng District, Shijiazhuang City, Hebei Province

Whenever it’s cloudy

The kitten is afraid to go out

Because of the clouds’ tears

It worries

That its soft fur

Will be taken back by the clouds

POETRY Unites people

We are traveling with words and with our talents.

EVA Petropoulou Lianou, founder of literary project,” Poetry Unites people,” works closely with a very talented young student in China 

Su Yun is a young poet who has shown an interest in the role of art, especially poetry, for young people’s education.

We cooperate and we exchange poems that are published in China and Greece.

Here you can find some poems written by young students. 

The project is called

 “Youth and Poetry”.

**If any teacher or school in Europe or Greece is interested and wants to participate in our project

POETRY Unites people “Youth and Poetry”

you can send email with your personal details to eviepara@yahoo.fr.

God

Maybe some people. Just weren’t meant. To know God. All the years.     All gone to waste.    The centuries spent searching.      The

fireball fights.      The blood spilling onto the crimson tiles.     Is this a

meaningless fight?       We fight for love, we fight against God.      Perhaps this

is what we were meant to do.      Not worship Him.    Fear him.  

 How can a horrible earth not be born from a monster?     Is beauty a trap?  

 Meant to pacify the tormentor? You know what they say.  A person in

jail who never realizes they are in jail.    Will stay in jail forever.   Was it so easy?

We can’t be all alone in this universe.     They recite love as proof of God.    

  But is love a curse or a blessing?   Happiness?       One of those

things they give, like rations?         All the curses disguised as gifts? To

keep you from ever wanting to leave?  But then why do people want?

 To leave?