Welcome home teacher! 

Welcome home teacher! 
You showed me the way 
Always hold my hand, 
The science you taught 

Welcome home teacher! 
You are always new 
We will keep your honor up, 
Thin pencil eyebrow, 
Welcome home teacher! 

Asking how you are 
Seeing your student 
I will wait and laugh 
Welcome home teacher!

I was surprised that you came 
Your face is like a crescent,
You have so many words, 
Welcome home teacher! 

We get one and four 
We are still young 
Mother of us all, 
Welcome home teacher!

Tanvir Islam is a student of grade 9 in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.

Rain 

Rain means rhythmic joy
Rain means creation
Rain means soft wind-cold weather
Rain, you blow with green, live, fresh recreation
Rain, you are so sweet.

18 July, 2023

Monira Mahbub is a student of grade 6 in Nawabganj Government Girls' High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.

NOT VALID

With a brush paint each day, a twilight 
Insisting on yellow auroras. not worth 
Retain deep images at mature age
Because the time I came after is cruel. 
not worth 
Falling on steady declines, 
desecrated the Altar of my beliefs to consolidate egos. 
not worth 
Sharpen the bow and shoot wounding arrows, 
Knowing that it is unfair. 
not worth 
Take off the scales when the heart screams and nobody listens 
Voucher 
This bunch of verses that feels empty when a dream ends. 
not worth 
The useless word about the dead miracle 
That can never be reborn under foundations of 

mistrust...


GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE Poet writer from Concepción del Uruguay Entre Ríos Argentina, based in Buenos Aires Licentiate in letters author of 7 books genre poetry. She has been awarded several times worldwide. She works as the World Manager of Educational and Social Relations of the Hispanomundial Union of Writers UHE and World Honorary President of the same institution. Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. MEMBER OF THE HONORARY CABINET EXECUTIVE OF THE COMMISSION FOR PEACE, JUSTICE AND STRONG INSTITUTIONS OF SOUTH AMERICA ARGENTINE CHAPTER OF UNACCC UNITED NATIONS UNIT FOR CLIMATE CHANGE CENTRAL, SOUTH AMERICA, MEXICO AND THE CARIBBEAN, IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS DIVISION .

The awakening 

when you live asleep 
in the life
all situations
they become dreams
you also live
many nightmares 
Where to learn from what happened,
recognize what has hurt 
forgive those who hurt me 
forgive me for those I have hurt 
accept what is apprehended
It's what you have to understand 
This awakening is not for everyone
because once I wake up
the mission is to transcend.

Mirta Liliana Ramírez has been a poet and writer since she was 12 years old. She has been a Cultural Manager for more than 35 years. Creator and Director of the Groups of Writers and Artists: Together for the Letters, Artescritores, MultiArt, JPL world youth, Together for the letters Uzbekistan 1 and 2. She firmly defends that culture is the key to unite all the countries of the world. She works only with his own, free and integrating projects at a world cultural level. She has created the Cultural Movement with Rastrillaje Cultural and Forming the New Cultural Belts at the local level and also from Argentina to the world.

Pieces of us 
scatter in the moonlight                                                                               
 
On a rooftop above Manhattan
 
We sit dangling legs 
over the edge 
like two thieves in the night 

Set to steal forbidden treasure

Our eyes to the stars
affected by the drink
we laugh 
unravel

Acknowledge what’s left on the table 



My fingers trail 
across the scratchy blacktop 
to your bare forearm
savor the soft hairs on your skin
tiptoe to your wrist

I take your hand in mine

Moments sail by
still and quiet
the warmth of you 
by my side
fears vanished

My eyes close

The gentle breeze 
sweeps my hair
across my cheek
while my mind strays

I am lost in the summer night

You squeeze my hand
then pull away
promised to the pretty girl downstairs 
who holds your baby in her arms

Star-crossed 
and conflicted
our timing out of sync
with life’s events

Yet there is peace in the moment

I turn to speak
whisper something
to smooth your hesitance 
but no one’s there 

The fantasy is broken
 

Linda S. Gunther has written six romantic suspense novels: Ten Steps From The Hotel Inglaterra, Endangered Witness, Lost In The Wake, Finding Sandy Stonemeyer, Dream Beach, and most recently published in 2021, Death Is A Great Disguiser. Ms. Gunther’s short stories, poetry, book reviews and essays have been published in a variety of literary journals.

Spring Grows Dim

Where art thou gone, oh where ---
Across the deep sea, riding on
Stormy waves and chilly winds?
Did we know it, did we care?

Realization creeps in among us
Now that it is too late,
The sun that beamed once
Is now forever mutely sit.

Didn't though hazard thy life
Ours to save from ruin---
Gone forth in search of light
All our dark souls to illuminate.

Oh, the spring is come again,
The spring that went with thee
Merry goes the world as it did ---
Anxiety or care strives in rain...

Nature wears her face as bright
Wind blows as merrily as oft
None sees wrong with sun and wind
Flowers nod as sweet and soft.

Birds fly from tree to tree
Rivers flow, murmuring low
Among the thickets, over the plains
Boatmen sit aright, sing and row.

Only here is no spring for us
Spring is poor without him
Shadowed with our grief and sigh
The smile of spring grows dim.    

Manzar Alam from Bangladesh. By profession I am a college teacher.

two small birds eat up
pieces of dropped ice cream cones—
two small children laugh


—


bag full of quarters . . .
a dozen dried-up houseplants
at the laundromat


—


partially eaten
red apple on the sidewalk . . .
evening sunshower


—


people come & go
on a warm summer evening—
bitten by horseflies


—


lightning overhead
on a summer afternoon—
on the phone with Mom


—


church food giveaway—
iridescent Japanese
beetle lands on me


—


cool rain cuts the heat
on this summer afternoon . . .
early taste of fall


—


wild sunflowers grow
all along the light rail tracks—
someone’s old armchair


—


summer in Denver—
distant gold capitol dome
reflects white sunlight


—


where’s my pretty bird?
I call for the white chicken
& she runs to me


—


bio/graf

J. D. Nelson’s poems have appeared in many publications, worldwide, since 2002. He is the author of ten print chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including *Cinderella City* (The Red Ceilings Press, 2012). Nelson’s first full-length collection is *in ghostly onehead* (Post-Asemic Press, 2022). Visit his website, MadVerse.com, for more information and links to his published work. His haiku blog is at JDNelson.net. Nelson lives in Colorado, USA.