Story from Iduoze Abdulhafiz

Still burning black, the dizzy morning stretches vastly across the infinite and wakes me up with a rush of its torpidity. It is infectious and I am unwilling to quit my slumbering position. Why should I quit this lull, this rest, this magnanimity of nothingness and descend into the littleness of life that swims without an iota of comfort? What little courage I have, I must use it, extra hours must be a possibility. For if I wake, it’s for the sake of this morning which is dizzy with it’s sleeping run of sweltering glow. I will not go gently into this day, I war with the giddiness of weak bones and an excessively crushed spirit.

    The scion of a sleepy eyed warrior is to be feared for laziness is more effective than hard work in the right hands. What I would do with my match stick, and my blunt and hard cock and other miscellanies would tear the world away from itself and at the same time, would mean nothing. None of it would matter, indeed, none does matter as much as a somnambulant passion, an unconscious dog burrowing his snout in stinking sand, digging and pissing, that’s why I wish to sleep. I badly wish to sleep and I would return to the rays of my slumber if only the bus of life was directed towards that destination. What is the use of waking when man, in his infinite finiteness, only truly spreads his pinions when he dreams? What is waking but a torment, a mosquito sucking the aspirations from every vein treading the mirrorless earth. It is my intention through these verses (for consider this bad poetry unversified), to sleep while I wake, to bite back the skin of the mosquito and drone and disturb it’s ears. To curse this circus is to mock the thin thread and what higher goal should man aspire towards in this gamut of deception we call wake. Eating the muck that makes up the bug which sucks our blood.

    Everything, everything that moves and breathes secretly secretes a wish for death as they progress through time. It’s like they grow weary and purposely slip, hoping they crack their thinking skulls on the porcelain; like they were tired of thinking and would gladly give away the faculty for it. Like it, a burden rather cast away, had done it’s time. It had always done its time; thinking. My eyes are tired of seeing and I wish I could close them, forever and dream of nothingness or of a Hera’s plump breasts. Whichever soothes the mood I am at that moment– nothingness for ennui; the poetic breasts, well, is for everything else. And like a cockroach, seeking death at every turn, hungry for a corpse of food, hungry to be a corpse of food, I hasten towards the pails of soothe to bathe me in its gushing enshroud. Fogs, clouding against the backdrop to sanctify my choices; to be or not to be, rather to be or to perish and gloat in the perishing– rise like buildings half decimated, half eager to be seen. And in the hubbub of the court of life, I ignore the fog, the sanctity, the choices brought to the steps of my bolted door and I choose slumber; the peace of it, the comfort of assurance. And does this make me an impotent pretender, who even in his parts– the pretense, is made impotent, or raw, like the secretion of all that moves and breathes, that aspires to flee from hunger? Does it make me be? Am I– in the indelible food truck of laughter, laughing at myself, throwing a mock at everything, even this bedsheet, rumpled from giving me repose, while wishing I was an acolyte of something; my trusts saving me from the deliriums of free will?

    At the edge of the shore the waves merge with the thirsty sand and it’s saltwater provokes parching through delicate care. The waves hopes it’s tides of love, which it repeatedly bathes the shores with, would one day sate it’s love, pacify her, relentlessly bring her to the four walls of a gentle climax. But each act of kindness, each touch of thoughtfulness only worsens the state of the shores. But to protest at this point, (if even it could do that, as all protest is a mask of dissatisfaction which leads to more tedium,) is a futile activity. It could even be termed rash; so the shores die in silence. No wonder the pallidity of the beach so stuns us we inevitably fall for it. All men long for woe in their massification, and thrive within the tokens of dry bones self destruct gets from pity, but the men who last… No man lasts, but all unconsciously believe they will.

    All girls are lesbians, but I must wake now from my waking dream. Aurora begins to sieve her provocative rays through the meshes in the window, laying siege to my thoughts. It gilds my room with a flood of light this sunlight. I have not consulted the time. I hate the time for it reminds me of my minuteness and makes me wish so badly I am god– above time and more mean spirited, like a fish that devours the reeds, man and other fishes. This wish targets his aloneness most of all: imagine controlling the world, watching naked bodies, envious: far above the threshold yet close enough to judge. I don’t mind god too much because I don’t know much of him and I don’t believe that any man could know God better than I know God, if he did exist. Pale face that shames the sun, a dick with the seed of stars and buckets of galaxies, time in his pocket, a haughty nature which still is revered? Why give excuses for God while the same characters are disdained in man, and even give God veneration? What makes him of better stock when I exist and he does not? For to exist is to be in this world, and to be in this world props more honor than any transcendence ever will. Death is a nullification as well as all things in the unknown alter; all forms beyond the void.

    To survive the melancholia, the wake, the aches in a blunted finger, to walk a distance under the blazing sun and still love it. God! Why should one not love life and hold it’s beauties however tedious, to greatest esteem. The cutting sunlight, like a knock on the head, begins to discipline me to efficacy, begins to steer me towards stirring from the bed. Still my leaden feet resists, my eyes are shut, still shooting towards sleep and I wish to dream forever.

Iduoze Abdulhafiz is a poet, playwright, short story writer and philosopher. His works delves into themes of introspection and existential questions. In them he explores profound emotions such as grief, longing, ecstasy, the divine and other worldly issues. 

He hopes that through his writing, he brings some form of sate or a glim of light, to the reader reading his work.

Many of his works contemplate issues of existence using metaphorical imagery and philosophical reflections. He has been published in the ekonke magazine.

Poetry from Wazed Abdullah

Young South Asian boy with short black hair and a light blue collared shirt.
Wazed Abdullah

Mobile Phone
 
In hand it rests, a portal bright, 
With every tap, it brings delight. 
Sent, calls so clear, 
The mobile phone, our modern seer. 
From dawn to dusk, it never tires, 
Connecting us with all desires. 
In a frame, a world's embrace, 
Our mobile phone, a magic space.

Wazed Abdullah is a student of grade nine in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.

Synchronized Chaos Mid-February: Grief and Joy

First of all, letting everyone know that we’ve picked a date for the Hayward Lit Hop, a community festival with different readings and events up and down B Street in Hayward, CA.

The third annual Lit Hop will take place the afternoon of Saturday, April 27th and we encourage everyone reading this who is in the area to attend! More information and a video clip showing off the Hop and how it works here on our website.

Secondly, Clare Songbirds Publishing House (CSPH) is launching its inaugural Elizabeth Royal Patton Memorial Poetry Competition. More about poet and English teacher Elizabeth Royal Patton here.

The Elizabeth Royal Patton Memorial Poetry Competition will be blind judged by a panel of five judges and cash prizes will be awarded to the top three poems. An anthology will be published with all the poems that make it through the first round of judging and each poet with an entry in the anthology will receive a free copy. All submissions must be sent via Submittable and the full rules and the link are here. The submission period will be from February 1 through April 18, 2024.

Now, for this month’s second issue, Grief and Joy. These feelings coexist here in abundance.

Rocks on a mountain trail interspersed with bushes and shrubs with red and yellow flowers. Blue sky and clouds overhead and mountains in the distance.
Image c/o Circe Denyer (Mammoth, CA)

Nosirova Gavhar offers up a playful and happy glimpse of winter while windswept canyons drive E.T.’s speaker to silence.

Nigora Togaeva revels in the natural and cultural beauty and richness of the Uzbek region of Kashkadarya. Sayani Mukherjee’s work radiates the beauty of a cluster of golden poppies. Mahbub Alam remembers the wondrous scenes he’s seen in person and in his mind’s eye.

Peter Magliocco also speaks of memory, and aging and fading romantic and sexual desire while J.D. Nelson expresses his quiet weariness facing everyday life and its mishaps.

Taylor Dibbert reflects on the life of his beloved dog. Isabel Gomes de Diego surrounds us with our mortality with her images of the Chapel of Bones in Evora, Portugal while Bill Tope’s taut horror story presents retribution for thefts from beyond the grave.

Stephen Jarrell Williams speaks of different types of loss: the lack of physical and relational and spiritual homes, a departure on a train, and the fading of sunshine. George Gad Economou shares his booze-fueled dreams of leaving the past behind to move into the future.

Wooden wagon with wooden wheels on gravel. Painted in stripes of blue, purple, green, yellow, and pink.
Image c/o Circe Denyer

Faleeha Hassan’s speaker plods along on a heavy wagon ride weighed down by sorrow. Safarova Zarnigor expresses the angst of being an old soul looking for love in a new world while J.J. Campbell searches for connection in a lonely town and stage of life.

Eva Lianou Petropolou laments how the children of Gaza will come of age in a time punctuated by war. Mykyta Ryzhykh speculates on unheard perspectives and untold stories buried under rubble. John Mellender relates a night in jail after an intense political protest in mock-epic verse while Daniel De Culla makes a mockery of the obscenity of war and power-hungry leaders. Walter Shulits also lambastes American political and economic power brokers in his epic series of poems while Ian Copestick blasts racism in law enforcement.

Sabrid Jahan Mahin urges us to be strong in a harsh and selfish world. Gulsanam Qurbonova encourages readers to think positively and avoid useless gossip while Lobar Davronova encourages moderation in the use of social media.

Yoldosheva Farangiz illustrates the transformation of a boy guided away from a life of mindless distraction to one of study. Guzal Sunnatova thanks her sister and her teacher for their encouragement to write and study poetry.

Tolquinboyeva Odinaxon writes of awakenings, moving from a hot summer to a fresh new autumn school year.

Light skinned hand holds up an open book showing text out on a grassy field with leafy trees and sunshine.
Image c/o Mohamed Mahmoud Hassan

Continuing with the school theme, Sevinch Tulquinova describes technical tools that can help college students learn language. Meylieva Zebiniso discusses psychological and pedagogical teaching techniques. Madina Fayzullayeva points out resources to help students organize and cite research papers. Baratov Quvonchbek encourages students to learn fundamentals of media literacy to be able to evaluate information. Maftuna Umaraliyeva discusses methods of helping English language learners grasp idioms while Asilabonu Sobirova outlines ways to help English language learners improve their reading skills.

Alan Catlin constructs numbered short verses that link ideas and fragments in unusual, but resonant, ways. Vernon Frazer joins and juxtaposes fragments to suggest nebulous processes: the slow destruction of a reputation, the passage of human history. Patrick Sweeney crafts thoughtful one-liners that request multiple readings.

Shahnoza Ochildiyeva exults in the many wonderful summer activities available to Uzbek school children. Gulasal Nematjanavna highlights the optimism of and the opportunities open to Uzbekistan’s fresh generation of youth leaders.

Bangladeshi poet Muntasir Mamun Kiron extols the glorious historical tradition conveyed in the Bangla language. Barnokhan Ruziyeva describes academic programs in linguistics and translation that propel Uzbekistan into thought leadership in those fields.

Zuhra Ruzmetova finds nurturance in the bosom of her motherland of Uzbekistan. Others find care and companionship in more personal relationships.

Vintage black and white drawing of a man in an old 1800s buttoned down army outfit sitting to talk with a lady in a long dress.
Image c/o Dawn Hudson

Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa celebrates life and friendship in pieces that peal with gentle musicality. Annie Johnson evokes the sweet comfort of sleep and memories of love and care.

Elmaya Jabbarova evokes the mysteries of how love begins, and how it fades. Graciela Noemi Villaverde suggests that passionate love can bring us to a form of divine eternity in our own minds while Maja Milojkovic compares deep, spiritual love to religious practice. Kristy Raines’ speaker describes a close intimate relationship that has brought her comfort and peace.

Ahmad Al-Khatat urges men who have found true love to appreciate the women dear to them. John Edward Culp invites listeners to hear love’s eternal story. Duane Vorhees describes sensuality and human thought and feeling through clever metaphor.

Jerry Langdon crafts a love poem that resembles a pop song, along with describing serious depression.

Mesfakus Salahin draws on religious and natural metaphors to convey grief. Dildora Toshtemirova mourns but looks forward to better days.

Young boy in a torn and dirty jacket looks on as a fire burns and smokes near ruins of buildings.
Image c/o Gerd Altmann

Diyora Kholmatjonova poetically grieves her departed mother while Sevinch Omonova encourages hers to find happiness in life. Nilufar Tokhtaboydva urges respect for parents due to the countless ways parents care and sacrifice for their children.

Gulsevar Xojamova provides a poignant reminder that not everyone has parental support while Akramova Shiringul Furqatjon illustrates the miracles that can happen through compassion and noticing the suffering people around us.

Nilufar Ergasheva illustrates her family and village navigating the change of seasons and a long winter, while Christopher Bernard’s poem points out small ways people hold onto warmth and the hope of spring in a bleak midwinter.

Mark Young’s “geographies” suggest maps and construction and our built and natural environments while Brian Barbeito finds the extraordinary in seemingly daily natural scenes, drawing on alien and spiritual metaphors.

We hope that this issue will help you find the beauty and grace in daily life, where pain, ecstasy, comfort and wonder all make up the panoply of our experiences.

Essay from Guzal Sunnatova

Central Asian high schoolers and teachers dressed in skirts and black pants and blouses and coats and collared shirts. Male teachers are in ties.
The student team members

I am grateful to you, my “Qaqnus”! ✨

I remember when I was a 10-year-old girl. I used to blame myself for something. In our school, I used to participate in the “Yosuman” club organized by my sister Jasmina. It was thanks to this sister that I took the first steps to “Qaqnus”. There I met a teacher named Beknazar. He did not want to be addressed as “teacher”. That’s why we used to call him “brother”. In the last months of 2018, I became an official member of the “Qaqnus” club. According to Beknazar brother, this name was named after the historical Qaqnus bird. That is, when this bird knows that its death is near, it burns and turns into ashes, and from these ashes, a new Qaqnus polapon appears. I heard that this is how Qaqnus got the name “bird of eternity”. In addition, this bird has 100 holes in its beak. Different tunes come out of all these holes when the Qaqnus sings. The 100 different sounds coming out of the beak of this bird can be seen that more than 100 students coming to our circle have different talents. The club had become an integral part of my life. The uniqueness of the environment here, the fact that I got close to my friends was a great light on light.

When I first stepped into the club, when I was just holding a pen in my hand, brother Beknazar gave my first poem to be published in the district newspaper “Gallaorol Ovozi”. As luck would have it, my poem was published a week later, and it was my first achievement. As I continued to create, brother Beknazar said: “Today you are enthusiastic, tomorrow you will be a leader! Don’t get tired of trying!” His words gave me strength. My efforts were not in vain. My first author’s book called “Journey to the Mysterious World” is proof of this. In addition, my creative works were published in many Bayoz books. I participated in various competitions. I do not complain about my achievements. My “Qaqnus” has a big contribution in this, of course! I have been a member of this family for almost 6 years. I am very happy about it. Brother Beknazar always shouted: “This place is a pigeon house! You come once, and when you find your way, you fly away again. Another one will come tomorrow.” It’s true. When I came here, I found my closest friends here, I became brothers and sisters. Our family is very large. I can tell you that this year, God willing, it will be 11 years since the creation of this circle, which includes artists from 7 to 70 years old.

So, there is a lot to say about our family. Therefore, come to our circle, we will definitely be waiting for you.

Once again, thank you for everything, “Qaqnusim!”

Smiling young adult Central Asian woman, hair up in a bun and a puffy black coat. She's outside on a green lawn.
Guzal Sunnatova

©Guzal Sunnatova Shuhrat’s daughter was born on January 12, 2007 in Republic of Uzbekistan. She has been practicing writing poetry since her 12 years old. Her poems regularly published in newspapers and magazines such as “Mushtum”, “Gulkhan”, “Guncha”, “Bilag’on”, “Bulbulcha”. Guzal Sunnatova published her poems on book of collection “Gallalar orolida”, “Yosh ijodkorlar” and her riddles on various topics have also published collection of ”Riddles”. She is winner of more than 20 republican competitions. Her future goals are become writer and ambassador.

Poetry from Nilufar Ergasheva

Smiling Central Asian teen girl with long dark hair and a light blue collared shirt, holding her hands up in the air. Trees behind her.
***
Autumn leaves us badly,
Fall down dear maple trees...
Autumn is hard for us
Began to sell faiths, plows.

The price will be high,
Endless love means.
Last winter was like a famine
I have had enough of patience.

...Oh, it's winter!
The blanket of the village is on fire!
Every ignorant, stupid person dried the pillow.
Be:
"I write!
I don't care!"

I walk one step,
of wide hills
Can I restore your clothes?
In which sun will I dry now,
Dad's waterproof boots.

The eyelashes of pleasant gardens are wet,
Like me, he reads and cries at night.
This is a village, even if it is a patchwork
He had a whole heart!

When the foxes outside tease
Snakes wait in the shelter,
Wow!
Hey!
Thief dogs are fun
My dad's only boot is amazing

Nilufar Ergasheva was born in 2005 in Fergana region. Erkin Vahidov graduated from creative school. Currently, she is a student of the 1st stage of UzMU and the winner of the State Prize named after Zulfiya.

Poetry from Kristy Raines

White middle aged woman with reading glasses and very blond straight hair resting her head on her hand.
Kristy Raines
I Never Saw this Coming

When I looked into your eyes, I saw myself in you, like a mirror
I shake my head because my feelings are hard to explain
I never want to live in a world where you aren't beside me
We are like puzzle pieces that only fit together... heart and soul
We stumbled upon each other when our roads crossed
You with a broken heart and me trying to find where I belonged
We connected so easily and I can't imagine life without you
My soul is now attached to yours, and I no longer miss mine
Your heart is now big enough to hold both of us with one beat
I have become like the shadow you see as you walk in the sun
I hope when you look in my eyes,  you will now see yourself.

But I must confess, I never saw this coming...


Your Sweetest Dream

I pretend to not see you look my way
I sigh because the love you have for me is so deep.
You take my breath away when you come towards me
My love for you only grows and I can't imagine myself
ever being without you...

"Always take me with you"

I long for you to always drown my life with your love 
There is nothing you can give me that is worth more than that
I never fear what is in our future, whether joy or sorrow.
As long as we do it together is all that matters to me...

"Never leave"

I pray you will always love me as your Sweetest Dream...

"Hold me closer"  ❤ 






Where Silence Ends

We stand close together with silence between us
Conversation goes from sweet notes to serious looks
No more do you give into the sadness within you
because tonight you are in the heat of my arms
As I look at you, I can't help but sigh loudly
because I know tonight belongs to just us
I can hear nothing but the whispers of our breaths
Silence is the music that captures this moment
A tear starts to form in the corner of my eye
as a serious smile comes closer to meet my lips
Come, and take a dip in this silent river 
where silence ends and sweet music begins... 




Glowing Moon of Passion

O' Moon of Passion...
How I long to take in your warm glow 
as you fill me with a beam of passion
and spill over onto me your stars of sweetness.
Oh how my senses shudder as I bask in the presence of your orgasmic light. 



Kristy Raines is an internationally known poet and prose writer born in Oakland, California, USA.  

Kristy is retired and married with two children and three granddaughters.

Kristy has four books getting ready to publish. One anthology with a prominent Poet from India,  which will launch sometime in 2024 called, "I Cross my Heart from East to West", two fantasy books of her own called, "Rings, Things and Butterfly Wings" and "Princess and The Lion", an anthology of poems in English,  "Little Rose Poetry" and her Autobiography called "My Very Anomalous Life".  Kristy  has received many literary awards for her unique style of writing.

Kristy enjoys fundraising for her friends who live in the refugee camps of Cox's Bazar and her volunteer work to raise awareness for the Rohingya people.

Poetry from Peter Magliocco

The Hip-Hop Mermaid


Risen from the warring shore
comes what survives the night’s blear
of human shards scattered
over earth’s sallow brow.
Fate clinging to my barnacled flesh
for the watery bower dawn breaks
over us, she said, snapping her tail.
Somehow she got into the pool
When nobody was looking,
with beaching sepia flotsam
bubbling, what bespoke ineffable
old rose–tinted morning crags
from another clime & century.
While sea worms its way into
My backyard, drenching me
into some searing sex scenes
with this nubile & naked mermaid?
I’ll leave it to your imagination,
For we tell lies beyond reason
in swirling sands of mud frost
turning like dark pudding
as the hungry elements yowl.
I devoured the battered remnants
Of her glistening fins, I plunged
into grief’s plundered port of sin.
I searched for music in her body
in this bed of tangled seaweed
songs do not linger anymore
to tantalize the jazz singer’s lips:
swelling the tide of my dementia
where we are now dissolving
& borne by lingering pathogens
only shallow sea gods are bitten by,
I feed the bloodlust’s swishing vein 
Sinking my shipwrecked sullen craft

==========



Spiked Heels of Lunar Light


Does the echo of light fading
still reflect the concrete wave
before a silent sound banishes
candid movements about you
of rainfall smearing streets.
While your red glossy high heels
staccato-tap glistening sidewalks
before mist slithering dawn comes:
a moment’s elocution of elements
finer than your own existence as
a precious filament ignites your eyes
the angels of death dissipate before.
You are the chosen one, Moon Dog
trailing ire over jaundiced time
nearby my gibbous hidden body
your heels excavate heavenly flesh
blood-red under moonlit rays,
& beneath distant overhead clouds
Hot moisture cuts the Velveeta 
you spread over perfumed breasts
before imbibing my fallen presence.
Food for dirty thoughts feeding
Old moon-dust beneath your feet,
My yearning cries now echo across
another walkway where footfalls 
stop in soundless shadows
beyond black mascara slashes
your sightless eyes redress 
in naked night’s cruciform raiment


==========



Eulogy for the Analog of Lost Desire


Only my sex in the ellipsis of your mouth
equals the sum of my disenchantment
reading your scurrilous epiphany at 4 a.m.,
& knowing how fucked it is for you
to post a revealing ad on Craig’s List

in order to write a book later about it;
& all your forays into the lusty disorders,
As weeds dying on the lawn of your desire
devotees of all lost amour aspire to,
hoping to escape banal boundaries

by extolling perversions to greater ends.
You text my acolyte unscathed by hate,
forsaking pristine years of bygone innocence.
Now the cock crows at the death throes
of one’s trendy sex life in empurpled drag.

No pill or superlative drug resurrects
the banished truth of old renegade heats
when there’s nothing left to betray us,
just your once revered cocky-capon god
sucking love’s mitosis of invisible microbes


==========

Symphony with a Severed Head

White light glistens in a vase of shadow
buds suspended by watery phlegm
Of the intoxicated grandpa:
I drink the syrup of palliating Scotch

Listening to domestic disputes outside
a window dust-splotched by faulty sprinklers.
The squatter snoring nearby the tool shed
isn’t exactly a meditating guru for quietus!

No, his curse-ridden dreaming is a diatribe
of bad rap lyrics damning his Jezebel.
(The one with a bustier so silver-spangled
with nipple rings, all very shiny

Under his mental door mat of nightly stupor).
Blue light in a bottle of 100% ambrosia,
forever amber this Thursday evening
Marred by police sirens & screams.

Outside cops investigate the premises,
but I’ll be damned if I’ll go out there
Like a concerned citizen of Twitter
with my cell phone video recording all.

Let the complex go to hell in a handbasket
bulging with the last dead rapper’s head,
Severed & still bleeding-out dumb aqua
until the saints come marching in.


Peter Magliocco writes from Las Vegas, Nevada, where he’s been active in the small press as editor, poet, and artist for years. He has recent poetry in Pulp Poets Press, Literary Yard, Dyst, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Jellyfish Whispers, The Pangolin Review, and elsewhere. His most recent poetry book is Particle Acceleration on Judgement Day from Impspired Press.