You are the Miracle of the World (for girls)
You are strong,
You are brave,
You are beautiful,
In every single way.
You are capable,
Of achieving your dreams,
Of overcoming obstacles,
And making them seem small it seems.
You have a heart,
Full of love and compassion,
And with every beat,
It radiates so much passion.
You are unique,
A one-of-a-kind gem,
A miracle of this world,
And someone's perfect friend.
So don't let anyone tell you
That you're anything less than great.
Because you are amazing
And destined for something great!
J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) is trapped in suburbia, wondering where all the lonely housewives have gone. He’s been widely published over the years, most recently at Cajun Mutt Press, The Rye Whiskey Review, Misfit Magazine, just good poems and The Beatnik Cowboy. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)
Moon Without Language
The moon doesn't just shine
Burns the darkness of the night
Fire burns in the eyes
Flowers bloom in the flesh of fire
In the midst of emptiness brings infinite fullness
Build the construction.
Even if everyone disappoints, the moon does not
The emotion of the first letter is in his skandha
Breakfast radiates love
Like the unspoken eye language of a girl Waiting at an open window with a tower in her hair
Or like a long-enveloped rose petal
Lover's hands will be dyed
Or as unknown letters on the pages of the heart.
I touched the body of the naked moon Touched day after day
I saw the mystery of the fingers of the ancient scholars
Shaking, shaking my life line
There is a river of voices in fear
Saw delirium delusion smell of cinnamon From start to finish.
Beth Gulley’s poems draw us into nature’s continual motion and transformation.
Vernon Frazer’s pieces explode with color and sound, evoking the Big Bang, and Mark Young’s art presents ordered geographies of color and design.
In J.K. Durick’s poetry, we fly, fall, and lurch forward into the future. In Emina Delilovic-Krevic’s work, a young girl experiences the refreshing embrace of nature on a warm spring day, while Don Bormon evokes the rhythms of day and night and the renewal of sunshine in his cloud poetry.
Young writer Bahira Baxtiyorova urges us in an essay to go take action, achieve our dreams. Elmaya Jabbarova calls us to lives of hard work and integrity, along with celebrating her homeland of Azerbaijan and the exquisite emotions of romantic longing.
Christopher Bernard reviews Toshi and Bernice Johnson Reagon’s operatic dramatization of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, a novel that explores how we can find and generate community and meaning in dystopian times. The young heroine creates a spiritual path that reveres change.
Death and the accompanying grief are also forms of and catalysts for transformation when we attempt to recover and heal.
Chris Butler’s nihilistic pieces offer humorous responses to death. Kendall Snipper reflects on how our bodies will ultimately decay, or transform, back into other aspects of nature.
Michael Lee Johnson’s poetic speakers are full of vibrant life and movement, yet acquiescence to their inevitable deaths.
Boronova Sevinch reflects on her grief over nearly losing her Mom.
Robiul Awal Esa presents a tale of death at the hands of human cruelty, which cannot be undone even with clever poetic (musical?) justice.
Stagnation, being unable to move beyond an unpleasant status quo, is another cause of grief.
Combat veteran and poet Steven Croft writes of memories stirred by Putin’s long war in Ukraine. His work shows how war ages people and can become more than we can handle psychologically. Bruce Roberts also speaks to the absurdity of armed conflict through rhyming pieces about the Russian invasion.
Pat Doyne comments on the tragedy of gun violence in the USA.
Ibn Yushau remembers a sister shunned by her family for her choice of husband.
Clive Gresswell conveys stuck-ness in the face of physical and political realities through surrealist stylized poems meant to evoke feelings.
Z.I. Mahmud explicates the social satire of Gulliver’s Travels, lampooning human foibles that have lasted centuries.
J.J. Campbell relates his discomfort at being faced with reality, whether from potential partners on dating sites or from silent medical office waiting rooms.
Ian Copestick gripes about sarcastic bus drivers who are unpleasant, and not open to the journey of life.
Others write about vague anxiety, alienation, or other psychological griefs. Change can be scary as well as a welcome relief.
Leslie Lisbona relates a new experience that wasn’t as good as she expected.
David Kopaska-Merkel tells a clever story about an alien who returns home to a parallel but very different family life, who is out of place in both worlds.
Jahnavi Gogoi’s poems probe grief and solace and various kinds of lostness and being found again.
Azemina Krehic contributes a poetic lament for an abandoned lover.
Mesfakus Salahin’s speakers pine away for lost love and search for spiritual communion in the desert.
Sarah Daly speaks to our grief and our human efforts to overcome life’s challenges and finds poetry in everyday matters, such as showers and punctuation.
Noah Berlatsky probes Generation X’s lostness, being caught between the past and the future, between nature and technology.
On the other hand, Steve Brisendine makes peace with memories, crafting dream sequences within Midwestern towns. Places become superimposed on each other, confused but not frightening, evoking the comfort of the past.
On another hopeful note, Peter Cherches’ poems tell stories about a man who tries to do good but gets everything wrong, yet it works out.
John Tustin asks us to consider what is important and what we should notice in our everyday lives (squirrels!), and speculates on what will become memorable.
Duane Vorhees brings a curiosity about our place in the universe to his poetry. Do we really know what we know, where do we belong in the world?
Channie Greenberg’s monthly set of photos shows towns situated within nature, belonging and growing together with the local flora and fauna in an ecosystem. Wazed Abdullah also celebrates country village life in his poem.
Ergash Masharipov relates how her loving mother inspires her to care for her future child, while Nozima Ulo’g’uva claims there is hope for the future thanks to the young and the mothers who raised them.
Turakhanova Mumtozbegim Bunyodjon highlights the young people creating the future of Uzbekistan through increased educational opportunities.
Some of this future is shown by academic research including Guzal Sunnatovaand Sohiba Rahmanova’s history of an Islamic shrine in Uzbekistan and Atajanova Ogultuwakh Makhsadowna’s exposition of Annimarie Schimmel’s scholarship on Islam that showed that women and girls were respected and important.
Other Uzbek writers advocate inclusion and justice. Makhsadowna also highlights women and girls’ active roles in modern Uzbekistan.
Elsewhere, in Bangladesh, Mahbub Alam describes his experience at a professional development retreat on learning how to teach foreign languages. Publishing this essay de-centralizes English, reminding readers that it’s by far not the world’s only language, and further highlights education for all ages as an avenue for personal growth and cultural interchange.
On Decay
Someday, the earth shall sink our bodies into her somber soil.
Our expressions will still, slip and melt, iris eternally slept to the sounds above.
Marigolds and mignonette will mingle in our eyesockets as their stems and seed speckle the surface.
As the bubbles in our blood break, the lingering love will liquefy into the expanse of the lusting, fertile terrain.
The cloth coating our flecked figures slowly frays and fragments, formerly protecting;
Now naked and pure for the glossy mahogany and roses ringing our forms.
The mauves, azures, and sepias will frolic from our fingertips into into the firmament.
Bleeding and blooming at the break of dawn.
Time tips and the trapping of our entombment softens and starts to rot, returning to the tranquil trance of the planet as a sparkling spring star.
how much money
a few women in the last
couple of days have told
me i don't look my age
i laugh, tell them thanks
and then ask how much
money are they looking
for
i certainly love how
honesty throws them
off and when i'm not
interested in seeing
them naked for just
a few dollars
they quietly go away
apparently, this sucker
has grown up
-------------------------------------------------------------------
lose yourself
the receptionist reminds
me of this girl i used to
flirt with back in high
school
amazing smile, dark
eyes, smooth brown
skin with an ass you
could lose yourself
in for hours
in high school, it only
got to the stage of
kissing
i see the rock on the
receptionist and know,
this won't even get
that far
--------------------------------------------------------------------
some kind of music
i don't trust a waiting
room that isn't playing
some kind of music
it's obvious,
this office wants the
patients to have nothing
but impending doom
on their minds
--------------------------------------------------------------
and the moment i decide
i wonder when
the relief of
death will
knock on
my door
i'm patiently
waiting as
best as i can
i figure, my life
will change, i'll
be active in the
world and the
moment i decide
life is a beautiful
thing
i'll hear a knock
and realize i never
was smarter than
when i was eight
years old
-------------------------------------------------------------
your profile photo
these younger
women these
days make me
laugh
like i'm supposed
to believe you really
are the adult film star
in your profile photo
and when i catch
them in the lie it
gets even better
and sure, they all
think i'm handsome
and all have been
abused one way
or another
it never dawns on
them the amount
of abuse i have
survived
you can't bullshit
a survivor
J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) is trapped in suburbia, plotting his escape. He’s been widely published over the years, most recently at Misfit Magazine, just good poems, The Beatnik Cowboy, Horror Sleaze Trash and The Black Shamrock. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)
MOTHER
This time I got a pen, for you mom,
I was looking for words like your kindness.
Dare to go today
Just wanted to say I'm fond of you
Actually you are my endless verse,
I have hidden in the bottom of my heart.
Mother, mother, I've said it a thousand times,
You are my sun, the light in my eyes.
Sometimes I couldn't speak my mind,
I couldn't stand and hug you!
Sorry, I couldn't kiss your hand.
I wish these days would come back, mother
I wish I could honor you, mother.
The education you gave me has blossomed today.
I took a place in the heart of teachers.
Your bitter words opened my eyes,
You, my friend, are full of advice!
You planted a seedling with hope,
You will be the best gardener.
With praise, applause, recognition,
You will be a perfect mother!
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE YOUNG PEOPLE
The Uzbek people are young people,
Lover of youth.
Respectfully,
An uplifter.
Young people are ours,
Owners of our tomorrow.
Our pride is our honor,
Trusts of our country.
Be wise, smart,
Intelligence is unique to you.
Smart kids like you
Suitable for great ancestors.
Today is a beautiful holiday,
Let it be forever.
Be happy, be happy, be happy
Congratulations from the bottom of my heart.
Dear President,
Attention is ours.
Today is a celebration,
All boys and girls!
Nozima Ulug’ova was born on October 13, 2001 in “Yosh gayrat” neighborhood, Shorchi district, Surkhandarya province. He graduated from the 37th general education school in the Shorchi district and at the same time, the Nukus branch of the State Institute of Arts and Culture of Uzbekistan “Art Studies” 3rd-level student of the department “Dramaturgy of Stage and Screen Art”. In 2022, his creative author collections “Mother for you” and “Salvation” were published and gained their readers. At the same time, his creative story is among the young artists of Uzbekistan. “Culture”, “Creative Flight”, “Women and Time”, “Surkhan Youth”, “Morning Star” are examples of creativity in our republic. It is covered in newspapers, “Gulkhan” magazine and “Nurli Jol” newspaper of Kazakhstan. The young penman did not limit himself to creativity, but participated in conferences and scientific meetings in prestigious journals with a factor recognized by OAC with about 20 scientific articles, pamphlets and theses.”Samarkand Youth Forum 2021″ “Uzbekistan Development Forum 2021” Participant of several forums and conferences, festivals and seminars. Nozima Ulug’ova in Personal development & Step into the international sphere Course, because he was able to show his activity and interests in the fields of literature and art in this course .Creativity Forum for Culture, Arts and Peace International member, Active member, working Group of International writers “Jontous por las Letras” Iqra Foundation has received membership offers from several international organizations in its field.
