J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) is old enough to know better. He’s been widely published over the years, most recently at Horror Sleaze Trash, The Dope Fiend Daily, The Beatnik Cowboy, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Disturb the Universe Magazine. You can catch him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)
1. Please share your thoughts about the future of literature..
It gives me the greatest honor to share and partake my own passion for literature, that ornament that embellishes our livelihood throughout lifetime, I am smitten by rendition and erudition of books in all life spheres, to build up a cultural cauldron inside my mind, to dissolve in the amalgam of civilizations and conception of the other, I am not that fond of traveling abroad, for fear of nostalgia to swathes of my endeared heartfelt homeland, rather I consider reading is the solution to unravel the riddle and decipher the intricacies of the others’ thoughts, attitudes and expectations.
It mirrors their torchlight guidance for the generations who are in dire need of your imagination and enlightenment to recognize who they really are, to perceive to what extent they reached out in their conceptualizing the core and crux of what is going on in the literary and scientific arenas.
When u start writing?
I do start since the prim of my youth, as a curious onlooker youngling in pursuance of language exposure, I listen a lot to the radio transmissions, like BBC news, or VOA coverage, I wrote down what I was hearing with the help of pronunciation skills I gained, the process by which I acquired spontaneity and fluency in English, fundaments in some other languages, didactic methodological errands to tackle my subject matter helped me a lot, throughout planning to – do lists in English, to your amazement, I tried to find out equivalent in my Arabic Fus7a the mother tongue, regarding idiomatic structure, interjection and syntax.
That linguistic inclination granted me tools and opened up large scale horizons to address the other, the process reached its zenith alongside with the gigantic leap of the know how, technological platforms, I jumped into platforms and mobile apps dealing in learning languages, there are so many to imitate the inventory contents and speak with the other. Since then, I planned a pathway to work on translation as a bonfire or a kindled flame to light up minds and allure other to the benefits of linguistics, as I volunteer to do so, awaiting to reap the fruits and my words instilled and inscribed in the scroll of universal history of literature like the notable role models in prose and verse.
The Good and the Bad.
Who is winning in nowadays?
That is a philosophical question, compelling me to the inner self of mankind, good and evil deeds created and innate inside of us, instinctively we might be susceptible to both pathways, but the mighty hand of good and righteous so doing is the vanquisher at last, goodness is like the lofty sun light, a heavenly revelation, but all humans err, and have shortcomings and deficiencies engendered, that abomination and obscene inclination dimmed the lovely hearts, that may delude us and made us into an abyss of the hell. There are wise proverbs admonishing us all—do good and cast it into the seas, do as you would be done by. Therefore, emanating from that mundane truth, we must uphold the slogan or motto of good and faithfulness rather than malfide and diabolical intrigues.
How many books have you written
And where can we find your books?
My printed out paper literary output was not that superfluous, I wrote about 10 short stories long time ago, but some of which were printed, in fact, 3 of which named: a human being.. But?.. The altars of imagination.. Snippets tinged with the savory of one’sself.. So many published electronically on Facebook prose symposia such as:the Golden Forum of short story, the Arab conference magazine platform.. Poetic anthologies are my passion, I wrote rhymed and free verse, my first diwan named : give me some sake, my poetic quill?..’ Hanaiki ‘Published and printed, but alot of poems scattered through websites and platforms, I also translate from other foreignlanguages into the Arabic.
Novels and novella play an important part of significance, the Adventurous novel ‘Nabhan and Dannan Alhazhaian’ – Nabhah and the Cask of Bewilderness, published this year, along with a translated novella— what’s after? Both Arabic and English versions of mine. For me, I dreamt to publish an encyclopedia encompassing most of luminaries around the globe with entire congregational literary genre masterpieces I have translated for them, still that dream awaiting a sponsor to make into the light. Translation is all in all undulating waves of outrageous sea of knowledge, full of untold sunken pearls in need to shine. A plea to all literary avant-garde laureates in all fields—give a keen eye on the translators, supposedly, I am one of them. Also, I am doing great in the sphere of literary criticism, you can follow my studies for the Arab writers through Arab symposium for contemporary criticism, and magazine like Amarjy, Damietta, blue world magazine, Nokhba, and other Greek, Romanian and Albanian podiums.
Anyone can search on my name through Google search engine in Arabic and English: Ahmed Farooq Baidoon أحمد فاروق بيضون.
What will be the future?
The future is promising, throughout unprecedented microcosm of consensus of literate, authors, playwrights, novelists, poets and poetesses, along with the evolutionary literary new genres, like haiku, tanka, haibun, micro-fiction, micro novella, I wish the future of literature created a venue that shall simplify meeting of the notable acculutred from the entire global territories, to stand united as upholders of word beauty and firmaments, they build up mind apart from undermining mental calibers of the generation by trivial bandwagon of fallacies and violence. We all call upon peace, welfare and serenade, to populate the Earth, to be worthy living and let the children of the world sing the song of unity and unanimous psalms of love. I dreamt that I could hear the sparrows chirping again.
..A wish for 2025
I wish it will be the turning point for a fruitful future, that’s all,
If only I could see the sunlight without imbued clouds,
If only I could see festivity world-wide without a droplet of tear or bereavement,
Let-alone a world of grudge-free and cherished with tempestuous sentiments.
Be it a dream in impelling need to come true or still the apparition of hatred looms?
A phrase from your book
(I Am The Wandering Letter)
Behold—here I am the solitary letter,
Let go astray in a paginated paper,
My ink fountain has muttered its insomnia,
I wrote down words and battle myself in a race,
I stay up late at daytime and darkness loom at night,
Therein – could hear all shall carry and trace,
I call upon everyone before the glow of twilight,
How come could eyes blink-my ribs fed up with stress,
How come shall we caress those melancholic setbacks with laughter alright,
And, hide all what may choke of distress,
And, flout all contemptuous abomination and dismiss,
Oh! Let-alone that blackout and sleepless eyelids perplexed till late times,
And, all inflected upon us—such lethal crimes,
I shall lay aside all overwhelming screams into oblivion rhymes,
Behold – the stroke of pens, ripped papers of mine; be it echoless as I feel down,
That serves me right as crippled, knitting my eyebrow and frown,
Does the croak of toads prevail in the universe and trumpet?
Verily, the celestial skies manifested as my salvation refuge to glimpse in slumber,
From color to another, we shall stomp it,
Behold-homesick of days, in grey tug of conflicting starry curtains – please hide,
If only I could be back in shape, a free letter without clipping wings – open- eyed.
Alfonso Reyes and Poetic Consciousness: Dreams as Revelation
Cesare Pavese stated, “We don’t remember days, we remember moments,” and Heidegger reminds us that “man acts as if he were the shaper and master of language, while language remains man’s master.” These two ideas can illuminate the work of Alfonso Reyes, a writer whose poetic exploration is not only an exercise in memory and conscience, but also a testament to the relationship between language, dreams, and revelation.
For Reyes, the habit of poetic consciousness is the meeting point between word and idea, between thought and feeling, between life and reason. His fascination with Greek tradition led him to understand poetry as the origin of human existence. In his view, reason and hope were not opposites, but complementary, as evidenced in Platonic philosophy. Reyes, in agreement with María Zambrano, seemed to understand that in classical Greece there was no sharp separation between thought and feeling, between poetry and reason, but rather both elements coexisted in vital harmony.
One of the most interesting aspects of Reyes’s poetry is his conception of dreams as a space of revelation. He understood them not as a simple escape or manifestation of the unconscious, but as a path to knowledge and poetic creation. Just as Heraclitus saw dreams as a place of absolute individuality, Reyes perceived them as a form of wakefulness, an intermediate state where language and image illuminate each other.
This vision is present in his poem “Pesadilla,” where dreams are not only a refuge, but a stage where fear and memory converse with history, with the dead, and with time. In these verses, Reyes shows us a world where spirits and memories blur, suggesting that dreams are also a form of truth, a way of reconstructing human experience through poetic imagery:
“Through those houses I visit in dreams,
confused galleries and halls,
staircases where fear wanders
and darkness rolls in tremors…”
The same experience can be had again and again in the dream of returning. Ideas follow one another over time in a vital and luminous way, making it almost impossible to reconstruct the remnants of thought without taking into account the energy to which it leads us, the desire to return to that dream, to those houses visited in dreams, since dreaming is not conceived in Reyes’s work as the simple wandering of the unconscious. This sensation, which causes the discourse of the encounter with existence in Reyes, is repeated until it provokes the desire for an eternal dream, which is both origin and consequence in a given moment.
His poetics is a constant journey toward the mystery of being, an attempt to reconcile vital cosmology with poetry. For him, writing is tracing a path that begins with intuition and emotion and leads to the light of understanding.
Awakening, dream, and vision are a provocation in the depths of time. Their timelessness is the original awakening and therefore the birth of Alfonso’s history, consciousness, and thought. In this angle of poetic vision, the antagonistic tendency established by the poetic image of the theorist, of the instant in subordination to the contextual world, and on the other hand, the influence of the same world, within the artistic system of Alfonso Reyes, who, beyond the mimetic relationship between reality and vision, dream and configuration, life and word, highlights the deference of real contexts as an incitement to creative activity.
This poetic awareness that Reyes develops between the extratextual and the textual, from external and internal perspectives, between the objective and the subjective in Rey’s literary invention, produces an artistic effect, which is developed throughout his own artistic feeling, in which the writer’s balance and personality play a relevant role, defining the objective and the impersonal from a new perspective that concerns his own expectations and from a particular point of view.
Reyes seeks to make his vital thought an astral, eternal, and uniform inclination. It is possible for him to transit in and through life, even in the manner of the stars, which is not proper to man. And Reyes certainly recognizes that this image has something of a frenzy, since it is an image of an empty time, without beginning or end, of an absolutized time; devoid of scope. Yet if space is described by creating it, then it is an effigy of life in its purest state, of life as an existence both chosen and free.
If Heidegger proclaimed that language is man’s teacher, in Reyes we find a concrete application of this idea. We can see in him that the poetic word not only names reality, but creates, expands, and transforms it. As in Plato, in Reyes, poetry is a way of knowing the world, a journey that seeks to wrest its hidden truth from existence.
His writing moves between intellectual rigor and imagination, between clarity and reverie. His verses and essays reflect a ceaseless search for meaning, a desire to transcend everyday experience to reach a broader dimension, where thought and poetry intertwine in an unquenchable radiance.
In Alfonso Reyes’s work, dreaming is not simply closing one’s eyes and escaping, but opening one’s mind and expanding one’s consciousness. It is searching in the depths of language for those sparks of truth that illuminate the world and restore our breath in the true dimension of what we have experienced.
In March we will have a presence at the Association of Writing Programs conference in L.A. which will include an offsite reading at Chevalier’s Books on Saturday, March 29th at 6 pm. All are welcome to attend!
So far the lineup for our reading includes Asha Dore, Douglas Cole, Scott Ferry, Linda Michel-Cassidy, Aimee Suzara, Reverie Fey, Ava Homa, Michelle Gonzalez, Terry Tierney, Anisa Rahim, Katrina Byrd, and Cindy Rinne.
Author Justin Hamm is hosting a FREE online literary event the weekend of AWP, known as StayWP. This will include author talks, informative panels, book launches and networking!
Poet and essayist Abigail George, whom we’ve published many times, shares the fundraiser her book’s press has created for her. She’s seeking contributions for office supplies and resources to be able to serve as a speaker and advocate for others who have experienced trauma or deal with mental health issues.
Also, the Educational Bookshop in Jerusalem, a store that has the mission of peaceful dialogue and education, invites readers to donate new or gently used books (all genres) that have been meaningful to them, with a note enclosed for future readers about why the books were meaningful. (The books don’t have to be about peace or social justice or the Mideast, although they can be). Please send books here. US-based Interlink Publishing has also started a GoFundMe for the store.
Eva Petropoulou Lianou shares the Dylan Thomas poetry contest and her own poetry launched off to the Moon on the Artemis mission as part of a collection.
A new book, Poetry Mexico, China, Greece, a collection from contributors Jeannette Tiburcio Vasquez, Yongbo Ma, and Eva Petropoulou Lianou, has just been released.
Our April 1st issue will be crafted by co-editor Kahlil Crawford. He’s a poet, musician, and essayist who has put together previous issues on Latin Culture and Electronic Music.
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This issue’s contributors seek balance and mental health by journeying into their pasts, the world’s pasts, into nature, into community, heritage, romantic, and family love. Others find Sanity Breaks in the subconscious, poetry, and art of various kinds.
Anna Keiko’s paintings bring a bit of off-kilter color and joy to nature and childhood. Kylian Cubilla Gomez’s photography presents joyful, colorful images of childhood play.
Brian Barbeito conveys the comfort and nostalgia of a small town that seems forgotten by time. Nilufar Anvarova remembers a joyful morning listening to roosters and smelling basil in a country village. Sayani Mukherjee also finds joy in moss, trees, and thatched roof cottages in her piece “Earth’s Song.” In another piece, Brian Barbeito shares intuitions and reflections from a day of walking his dogs in the snow.
Shukurillayeva Lazzatoy translates a poem from Alexander Faynberg about always searching for a distant shore, as well as another Faynberg work about finding hope and strength to continue a long journey.
Stephen Jarrell Williams speaks to the shared journey of finding meaning throughout one’s life. Grant Guy contributes musings on relationships and the passage of time as Daniel DeLucie reflects on how time marches relentlessly for us all.
Azamat Abdulatipov highlights how Uzbekistan pays national attention to youth issues through their student development programs. Gulnozaxon Xusanova reminds us to celebrate youthful achievements.
David Sapp draws upon classical art and music to trace a man’s journey towards maturity. Alan Catlin views art and landscapes through the eyes of a variety of well-known international artists. Norman J. Olson seeks out art old and new in London and Italy.
Joshua Martin evokes the subconscious behind-the-scenes consideration of thoughts and sensations in text that reads more like code than writing. Vernon Frazer clangs words together into a street corner symphony. Mark Young’s “geographies” intertwine color, shape, line, and form in unexpected ways. Peer Smits creates abstract images where thick lines and stamps color white canvases, and where posters blur and dance into rippled reflections.
Mark Murphy illuminates the power of art and imagination to inspire people to claim agency in a world where much seems historically inevitable. Jasmina Makhmasalayeva urges people to form their own self-concepts apart from societal pressure.
Jacques Fleury posits a “resume” for a Black street thug in a way that troubles and questions stereotypes. Isaac Aju presents a tale of a brave student who stands up to institutional disrespect.
Taylor Dibbert highlights the need to write creatively for joy, not for money. Ivan Pozzoni’s work speaks to the struggles of the creative artist in a society dampening creative urges and to romantic love between people not afraid to live fully embodied and present.
Alaina Hammond’s play dramatizes the struggle of a young woman choosing between a steady and comfortable family life and the promise of passionate love. Natalie Bisso’s poem illustrates a tender and intense romantic attraction. Yusufjonova O’gilkhan’s tender short story explores the love between a brother and sister.
Duane Vorhees takes a lexical flight of fancy through nature and romantic attraction. Isabel Gomez de Diego’s photos weave together nature, romantic and family love, and religious devotion. Eva Petropoulou Lianou honors mothers through a poem translated to Arabic by Egyptian poet Ahmed Farooq Baidoon. Musurmunova Gulshoda honors parents, friendship, country and heritage, and teachers. Eva Lianou Petropoulou celebrates friendship and mutual respect among women.
Poet Joseph C. Ogbonna references the love, comfort and solace he finds through his faith. French poet Timothee Bordenave speaks to his love for the faith-infused atmosphere of Paris.
Mesfakus Salahin speaks to a tender and poetic love, and also describes the joy of authentic love that does not match poetic expectations. Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa also addresses true love as opposed to exploitation and how reaching maturity will help people figure out the difference, along with the need for universal compassion and empathy.
Kathleen Hellen highlights the fragility and tenuousness of the bonds that connect us. Bill Tope’s short story speculates on the many might-have-beens of a life cut tragically too short.
Mykyta Ryzhykh highlights the devastation of losing years of life to war and grief, blind but able to sense a tree losing leaves and a world that “still remembers the shape of our bodies.” Z.I. Mahmud analyzes the anti-war sentiment of Bertolt Brecht’s play Mother Courage and Her Children by showing how hardship and violence can change or flatten a person’s character and feelings. Umid Najjari’s poetry addresses war, love, loss, and grief.
Eva Petropoulou Lianou raises awareness of how domestic violence can start with control and possessiveness before physical assault. Mahbub Alam writes of his concern for his homeland of Bangladesh where women and girls face rape and assault. Linda S. Gunther’s short story deals with a woman recovering from and reclaiming her self-esteem after a breakup with a powerful man.
Orinbayeva Dildara reflects on how love has inspired her poetry, but not brought her happiness. Murodillayeva Mohinur expresses the rage and pain caused by betrayal. J.J. Campbell’s work captures ennui and frustration within lonely suburbs.
Poet Pat Doyne speaks to history’s cycles repeating in the modern world and how easy it is to lose hard-won liberties. Daniel De Culla lampoons and apes Donald Trump in a satirical romp.
Sharipov Dilshod Bakhshullayevich outlines how to maintain one’s sanity and civility in a world that can test your patience. Maja Milojkovic relates how she’s mindfully and carefully maintaining her wisdom and kindness and how she urges the world to do the same, as Mirta Liliana Ramirez shares how she’s choosing the most uplifting and thoughtful memories from all of her past to help her move forward to the future.
We hope that Synchronized Chaos, while challenging your mind and heart and broadening your horizons, also serves as a kind of sanity break.
