Poetry from Susie Gharib

No Mask

No mask has ever fitted my face, 

though compulsorily it is to drape one’s visage,

thus naked my features have remained

at home, 

at work, 

and in prayers.

No paints have ever suited my physiognomic traits.

The rouge revolts against teeth and lips,

and kohl runs riot on lashes and eyelids,

suffusing my eyes with a soot-like substance.

No words have ever withheld their revelations.

They howl their way out

despite bridles and intimidation.

They resonate 

and reiterate,

overlooking every type of exclamation. 

If I Were a Queen

My students continued to stare at me,

pondering over my words, 

in a state of disbelief,

some faces betraying shock, 

others questioning the practicality of my revelations.

I reiterated that if I were a queen – 

yet emphasizing the impossibility of purpling my veins –

I would give up my crown and jewelry

to build orphanages and proper houses for the less fortunate.

My attire would be simple

since extravagance costs multiple millions

that can accommodate every homeless citizen.

Besides, innate grace does not need an expensive outfit.

A Paper Lantern

If I could only be 

a floating paper lantern,

sailing on a placid stream

for eternity,

emanating gold everywhere,

yet escaping the maliciousness of the human species.

Essay from Xamroyeva Shaxlo 

HEMATOPOIESIS: DEVELOPMENT AND SIGNIFICANCE

Abstract:

This thesis discusses the process of blood formation—hematopoiesis, its stages, main organs, and biological significance. Hematopoiesis ensures the continuous renewal of blood cells in the body.

Keywords: hematopoiesis, erythrocyte, leukocyte, platelet, bone marrow, stem cells

Introduction

Hematopoiesis is the process of formation and development of blood cells in the body. This process continues throughout human life and is essential for the normal functioning of the organism.

Main part

Stages of hematopoiesis

Hematopoiesis is divided into embryonic and postnatal periods. During the embryonic period, blood formation initially occurs in the yolk sac, then in the liver and spleen. After birth, the main hematopoietic organ is the red bone marrow.

Formation of blood cells

All blood cells develop from hematopoietic stem cells. They differentiate into the following main types:

Erythrocytes – responsible for oxygen transport

Leukocytes – involved in immune defense

Platelets – play an important role in blood clotting

Regulation of hematopoiesis

Hematopoiesis is regulated by hormones and biologically active substances. For example, erythropoietin stimulates the production of erythrocytes.

Clinical significance

Disorders of hematopoiesis can lead to various diseases, including anemia, leukemia, and other blood system disorders.

Conclusion:

Hematopoiesis is a vital biological process that ensures the continuous renewal of blood cells. Its normal functioning is essential for maintaining a healthy life.

Xamroyeva Shaxlo  Uzbekistan

Joseph Nechvatal reviews Rus Khomutoff’s Kaos Karma

Review of Rus Khomutoff’s Poem Kaos Karma

“Essentially an artist does one thing throughout his career, but over the years he discovers its various implications and expands upon and deepens aspects of what had been present in his work. Perhaps that’s the difference between a serious artist and an entertainer. The artist is constantly deepening a single, obsessive theme, rather than decorating a succession of topical themes.”

~Richard Foreman

Rus Khomutoff’s poem Kaos Karma suggests an encounter between a body of literary writing and a body of magickal/philosophical writing, thus crossing (nonstop) various thresholds of consistency. This despite the consistent all caps no punctuation of its form that positions it on brink of resembling Jenny Holzer’s Truisms (1978–87), though she did not center the text as Khomutoff usually does. 

So I read Kaos Karma as an abstract machine that consists of formed and unformed formal functions expressing the relationship of literature to a philosophy of cut-up chaos magick (and vice-versa). As such, Khomutoff offers a way of saying something about the philosophy of poetry that began with Stéphane Mallarmé’s Un coup de dés jamais n’abolira le hasard, but also of the philosophy that is claimed by and for, and sometimes of, chaos magick’s labyrinthine conception of multiplicity and singularity.

In Kaos Karma the reader is not linked by means of period, genre, nationality, style, theme or political ideology; for it has a relentless high-wire flow of exposition that exposes a conniving with transcendence. Especially when its apparently cut-up philosophical transactions (without transitions) are underway. It is with this privilege I am according to Kaos Karma the sign of art that can force thought. This, while at the same time, it is busy effectuating dispersal and fragmentation, rather than totalization.

Khomutoff, on an aesthetic plane, screams in all caps urgent questions that confronts the reader with phrases from different disciplines as the poem oscillates between manifesto and chance. Yet the jump-cuts encountered in Kaos Karma are an encounter between a poetic discipline which decrees a level of specificity and irreducibility. The poet has an immanent manner when he is considered on quite another terrain: that of literature ‘itself’. For, Kaos Karma is important for what it can do as an ABSTRACT MACHINE, rather than for what it might be said to mean. 

This evaluative enterprise involves an assessment of the degree of affect produced by Khomutoff’s dramatic work as an impure intercourse between literature and manifesto. But Kaos Karma has a very particular slant deriving from two distinct (but intimately related) bodies of work, Beat literature on the one hand, and the rhizomatic philosophy of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari on the other, as it gestures towards the preposition of its title. 

Of course rhizomatic philosophy is itself already subjected to particular encounters with connectivity in our poetic thinking, but the liaisons found in Kaos Karma reads as if the writer is pushing the reader to be impatient and to get on to the next phrase without pause. There is a privileging of a certain speed-flow of words here that merges the possibility that some of Kaos Karma is inscribe or prescribe with a heavy dose of something irrational.

While I would not wish to stress this view, what emerged out of reading Kaos Karma a number of times, is a fact that certain words used here (more than others) gravitate comprehensively towards specific mysteries around passion through the text’s emphasis on being and judgement.

It might be objected that the encounters with passion I found in Kaos Karma are arbitrary (validated by a mere coincidence). But each poem page, to a greater or lesser extent, bears the imprint of a coincidence of this sort. 

To identify a specific philosophical passion or problem in each of the pages of Kaos Karma would be reductive and subject the poet’s word-flows to the demands of rationality, instead of feeling. My point, however, is quite to the contrary, even though Kaos Karma read the third time through illuminated through these encounters with passion the philosophical tradition of Deleuze and Guattari for me. Particularly, their critique of interpretation which they together launched in The Anti-Oedipus. In that sense, Kaos Karma may assist the reader in the unlearning of romantic word-image-thoughts which have dominated the poetic discipline. 

This is only in part explained by the frequent recourse which Khomutoff makes in his work to ecstatic celebration. The uniqueness of the pertinence of the colorist Dionysian non-space he creates as a form of modulation questions the relationship of poetry to passion to the extent to which the magickal chaotic philosophy of Austin Osman Spare pervades his practice. 

Transfiguration forms the corpus of Khomutoff’s writing in this dramatic poetry. But the reader does not encounter a programmatic statement which might be applied by one attempting to write about literature and philosophy in the manner of, or after Kaos Karma. This singular body of work enters the bloodstream of this reader at a rate quite distinct but similar to William S. Burroughs’s Beat poetic transfusions. And yet there is a noncorrosive quality in these Kaos Karma poetic interventions which renders any attempt at a general theory of literature decadent. An intellectual-artistic enterprise doomed in advance. 

For me, the reading of Kaos Karma required an exploration of my memories of the work of Antonin Artaud, James Joyce, Henry Miller, José Saramago, Maurice Blanchot, Comte de Lautréamont, Samuel Backett, Jack Kerouac, André Breton, F. Scott Fitzgerald and the stream of consciousness writing that originated with Surrealism and the works of psychologist William James; even as the poem invents unknown or unrecognized affects and brings them to light. For Kaos Karma outlines a plane of consistency which enables, activates or prolongs mental fluxes and becomings as it unfolds a possible world of declaration which secretes and promotes incommensurability, heterogeneity and multiplicity. Such an encounter with such a world entails the crossing of a threshold of becoming, a displacement which scrambles positions of psychoanalytic or karmic interpretation. It consists of a stream of semiology which is anti-psychoanalysis. 

This banging bit of poetic writing is precisely an affair of becoming, but it is important to note that becoming in Deleuzeian terms does not entail the attainment of form by means of identification, imitation, or mimesis; but finding, rather, the zone of indiscernibility such that it is not possible to identify or distinguish this or that specific thing. It is a process, that is, a passage which traverses the livable and the lived inseparable from becoming. 

~Joseph Nechvatal

joseph@nechvatal.net 

Joseph Nechvatal is the author of Venus Voluptuous in the Loins of the Last God, available here.

Poetry from Tursunova Mehrinoz Oybek qizi

A Letter to My Mother

If one day this fragile heart should cease,

My soul will hold just one last wish in peace:

In that last breath, that final fleeting hour,

Mother, to see you once more is my power.

My gentle one, so loving, warm, and kind,

Around your children, tears you often bind.

Through every trial life placed upon your way,

You stood unbroken, strong in every day.

My angel here on earth, my shining sun,

Your smile can brighten all when day is done.

When your bright eyes so full of light I see,

This world feels whole and perfect just for me.

Now I confess the truth I could not say:

A selfish child—I’ve been along the way.

To such a mother, pure and full of grace,

I’ll never be deserving of your place.

At times I spoke with words both sharp and cold,

An ignorant heart, a soul not yet grown old.

Though years have passed and I have aged in time,

I’m still that foolish child in this strange life of mine.

Are all mothers like you—I wonder so,

Who never blame when children hurt them so?

One question lives inside my restless heart:

From where does such deep endless love all start?

My dearest mother, patient through it all,

My life, my hope, the one who lifts me tall.

It’s true I’m not the child you hoped I’d be,

But you’re the greatest mother there could be.

My name is Tursunova Mehrinoz Oybek qizi. I was born on February 28, 2005, in Andijan region. Currently, I am a third-year student at Andijan State Pedagogical Institute. I chose primary education because I enjoy working with children.

My favorite activities are reading books and learning languages. At the moment, I work as a Turkish language teacher. In my free time, I enjoy writing poems.

Eva Petropoulou Lianou interviews poet Eldar Akhadov


1. Dear poet! Please tell us about your childhood.

I was born on July 19, 1960, in Baku, the capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, to a Turkic family of an Azerbaijani father and a Tatar mother. Russian was spoken because it was the lingua franca of the USSR. I spent part of my childhood in the Penza region with my grandparents, who had moved there from the siege of St. Petersburg during World War II. Many of my mother’s relatives died of starvation during the Nazi siege of that city. Among her relatives were renowned musicians of international renown, such as Ravil Martynov, founder and chief conductor of the St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra. My father’s mother, my grandmother, Mrs. Sarfinaz, was descended from a Khan clan.  Her father, Khan Tagi, had several sons, but after the rise of Soviet power, they were executed. My grandmother survived only because she was married by then, bore her husband’s surname, and lived elsewhere. My father, Alikhas, was a staunch communist and a power engineer by training.

What inspired you to become a writer?

The May Day demonstration of 1968. My father took me to a large seaside square. It was spring, with a bright blue sky and an orchestra playing festive marches. This festive atmosphere inspired my first poems.

2. Who is responsible for a child’s future: parents or the environment?

The child’s parents, the environment, their personal talents, and their unique destiny. I was 15 years old when a stray shot from a neighbor’s gun nearly killed me. I survived and became a poet.

I also graduated from the oldest mining university in Europe, the Saint Petersburg Mining University (founded in 1773), and became a mining engineer and surveyor (a navigator of underground and surface geodetic work). I worked in this specialty in the Caucasus Mountains, the Siberian taiga, and the Arctic tundra of the Far North. I became an explorer, a member of the Russian National Geographical Society (founded in 1845), and the author of fiction and scientific books in seven languages, published in Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Russia, Serbia, Turkey, and the United States.

3. Wars are everywhere on our planet. Do you think we live in a favorable environment? 

What should we teach future generations?

I don’t think we live in a favorable environment, but the fact that we’re still alive is a great blessing. Future generations must learn to live in mutual understanding and love; humanity has no other path.

4. Share your opinion on literature.

World literature is as diverse as the peoples inhabiting the planet.

Nevertheless, it is possible to find common ground with all competent writers, because the universal spiritual and cultural values ​​of all peoples are the same.

About e-books.

E-books have a right to exist as a source of knowledge and cultural values ​​alongside paper books. The main thing is that people love to read.

5. What is your opinion of the new generation?

Do we have new talents?

Of course we do. I am the father of four children: two sons and two daughters. They are all talented in various ways.  I am convinced that all children are talented, and it is the job of parents and teachers to help them discover their talents.

6. Many poets and writers use AI to write poems and even books.

What is your opinion on this?

I am certain that AI was created to help people, but not to replace their creativity with electronic software. A program can simulate human emotions, but it cannot truly sense them.

7. What are your plans for the future?

I am the author of 108 books of poetry and prose for adults and children, and I plan to continue my creative work.  

8. A quote from your book that would inspire a young reader to read your book.

“To fly, you need wings. If you’re a poet, you’ll definitely fly.”

Essay from Abduhalilova Sevdora

KOKAND UNIVERSITY ANDIJAN BRANCH

Faculty of Philology and Language Teaching

SCIENTIFIC ARTICLE

POLYLEXICAL ANALYSIS OF PHRASEOLOGY IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Author:

Abduhalilova Sevdora

Student, English Language Department, Groups 25-26

Scientific Supervisor:

Sobirov Otabek Qodirovich

Acting Associate Professor, Department of English Philology

otabeksobirov774@gmail.com | +998 91 288 89 077

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the poly lexical analysis of phraseological units in the English language. Polylexical analysis is a method of studying language units composed of multiple lexical elements from structural, semantic, and functional perspectives in a comprehensive manner. The article examines the compositional characteristics of phraseological, their polysemy, semantic integrity, and the functions they perform in speech. The findings of this research offer new methodological approaches to the study of English phraseology.

Keywords: phraseology, poly lexical analysis, idioms, phraseological units, semantics, lexicology, English language.

1. INTRODUCTION

Language is the primary means of human communication, continuously evolving and enriching itself. Phraseology is one of the most fascinating and complex branches of linguistics, studying stable, non-compositional word combinations whose meaning is perceived as a whole. The English language, with its rich phraseological heritage, ranks among the most extensively studied languages in the world.

Modern linguistics offers numerous methods for studying phraseological units. Among these, poly lexical analysis occupies a special place. The poly lexical approach considers phraseologisms not as a simple collection of individual words, but as integral language units arising from the semantic cooperation of multiple lexical components.

The purpose of this article is to conduct a poly lexical analysis of phraseological units in the English language, to reveal their structural and semantic characteristics, and to demonstrate their significance in speech and communication.

2. PHRASEOLOGY AND Poly lexical ANALYSIS: THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

2.1. The Concept of Phraseology and Its Place in Linguistics

Phraseology (from Greek: phrases — expression, logos — doctrine) is the branch of linguistics that studies stable word combinations, idioms, and proverbs. According to the academic definition, a phraseological unit is a multi-component language unit that is semantically integral and reproductive in character (Koonin A.V., 1996).

Phraseological units in English are divided into several main types:

Idioms: to kick the bucket (to die), to spill the beans (to reveal a secret)

Proverbs: A stitch in time saves nine, Birds of a feather flock together

Clichés: at the end of the day, last but not least

Collocations: make a decision, take a break, heavy rain

2.2. Methodology of Poly lexical Analysis

Poly lexical analysis is an approach in linguistics aimed at studying language phenomena composed of multiple lexical units. This method treats phraseologisms not as a simple sum of individual words, but as a complex semantic structure (Cowie A.P., 1998).

Poly lexical analysis encompasses the following key aspects:

Structural analysis: examining the number of lexical components in a phraseologism and their interrelationships

Semantic analysis: comparing the overall meaning of a phraseologism with the individual meanings of its lexemes

Pragmatic analysis: studying how radiologists are used in speech and communication

Etymological analysis: tracing the origin and historical development of phraseologisms

3. Poly lexical CHARACTERISTICS OF ENGLISH Phraseologisms

3.1. Structural and Compositional Analysis

Phraseological units in English are structurally composed of two or more lexical units. This characteristic is the principal feature that distinguishes them from simple words. From the perspective of poly lexical analysis, phraseologisms may conform to the following structural models:

Structural Model

Example (English)

Meaning

Noun + Verb

to break the ice

to initiate conversation, ease tension

Adjective + Noun

a black sheep

an outcast, a disreputable member

Verb + Adverb

to run away

to flee, to avoid a problem

Noun + Noun

a piece of cake

something very easy

Verb + Preposition

to look after

to take care of, to tend to

Preposition + Noun

under the weather

feeling ill, in poor health

The data presented in the table demonstrate that English phrases exhibit broad structural diversity. Each model forms its own semantic characteristics, which constitute the primary object of interest in poly lexical analysis.

3.2. Semantic Integrity and Meaning Transfer

The most important poly lexical characteristic of phraseologisms is their semantic integrity. This means that the overall meaning of a phraseologism is not equivalent to the sum of its individual components. This phenomenon, known as destination, refers to the process whereby the components of a phraseologism lose their individual lexical meanings and acquire an idiomatic sense.

For example, in the phrase to bite the bullet (to endure pain or difficulty with stoic resolve):

to bite (to use teeth) + the + bullet (projectile) = to endure with patience and courage

As can be seen, combining the literal meanings of the individual words yields an entirely different concept. This is precisely what makes radiologists a distinct object of polylexical analysis.

3.3. Semantic Classification of Phraseologisms

According to the classification of scholars V.V. Vinogradov and A.V. Koonin, English phraseologisms are divided into the following types based on their degree of semantic integrity:

Phraseological fusions: the semantic link between components is completely obscured. Example: to kick the bucket (to die) — the overall meaning cannot be derived from the individual words by any logical process.

Phraseological unities: the idiomatic meaning can be understood through the figurative meanings of the components. Example: to spill the beans (to reveal a secret) — spilling beans metaphorically represents disclosing confidential information.

Phraseological combinations: one component is used in a figurative sense. Example: to pay attention — the word “pay” is used metaphorically here.

4. PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF POLYLEXICAL ANALYSIS

4.1. Analysis by Thematic Groups

When conducting a polylexical analysis of English phraseologisms, organizing them into thematic groups is one of the most effective approaches. Different thematic clusters reveal the substance and meaning of phraseologisms with greater clarity.

Phraseologisms describing human characteristics are numerous and vivid. For instance, a hot potato (a controversial issue that nobody wants to deal with), a dark horse (an unknown competitor or unexpectedly successful person), and an old flame (a former romantic partner) express people’s traits and behavior in a highly evocative manner.

Phraseologisms related to natural phenomena and everyday life also occupy a special place in English. Expressions such as when it rains, it pours (misfortunes never come singly), a storm in a teacup (a great fuss about a minor matter), and to make hay while the sun shines (to take advantage of a favorable opportunity) derive from natural phenomena and convey profound philosophical wisdom.

4.2. Corpus Analysis Findings

Research drawing on the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) reveals that the English language contains over 25,000 stable phraseological units, more than 60% of which are composed of two or three lexemes. These statistical findings clearly confirm the relevance and importance of polylexical analysis.

As part of our research, a polylexical analysis of 150 phraseologisms yielded the following patterns: 68% of phraseologisms feature a noun-verb structure; 22% consist of an adjective-noun combination; and the remaining 10% encompass other grammatical structures.

5. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF POLYLEXICAL ANALYSIS IN THE STUDY OF PHRASEOLOGISMS

Polylexical analysis offers a number of important advantages for learners of the English language. First, this method helps learners understand the internal logic of phraseologisms rather than memorizing them mechanically. By analyzing the components of a phraseologism, the learner can grasp the semantic relationships between them.

Second, the polylexical approach serves to enhance linguistic competence. By studying the structural patterns of phraseologisms, language learners can apply this knowledge when encountering new expressions. This renders the learning process considerably more effective.

Third, polylexical analysis holds significant importance in intercultural communication. English phraseologisms often reflect the history, customs, and values of the English-speaking world. Through their polylexical analysis, language learners can gain a deeper understanding of English culture as well.

6. CONCLUSION

The analyses presented above demonstrate that the polylexical analysis of English phraseological units provides a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of these language units. The polylexical approach enables us to view phraseologisms not as a simple combination of words, but as a complex semantic system.

Based on the findings of this research, the following conclusions are drawn:

English phraseologisms possess polylexical characteristics, meaning their overall meaning is formed independently of the individual meanings of their components.

Polylexical analysis enables the comprehensive study of phraseologisms from structural, semantic, and pragmatic perspectives.

The semantic integrity and meaning transfer of phraseologisms constitute their principal polylexical characteristic.

This analytical method opens new methodological possibilities in the teaching and learning of the English language.

REFERENCES

Koonin, A.V. (1998). English-Russian Phraseological Dictionary. Moscow: Russkiy yazyk. 944 p.

Cowie, A.P. (1998). Phraseology: Theory, Analysis, and Applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 258 p.

Vinogradov, V.V. (1996). On the Main Types of Phraseological Units in the Russian Language. Moscow. 340 p.

Moon, R. (1998). Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: A Corpus-based Approach. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 338 p.

Svensson, M.H. (2008). Catch the Ball and You’re Out: On the Complexity of Phraseological Units. Journal of Linguistics, Vol. 44, pp. 421–471.

Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. 1779 p.

Maslova, V.A. (2001). Linguoculturology. Moscow: Akademiya. 208 p.

Mirzayev, A., & Razzaqov , S. (1992). Uzbek Phraseology. Tashkent: Fan. 186 p.