Synchronized Chaos’ Mid-May Issue: Staying Human

John P. Portelli's book cover of Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine. Book title is in red, black, and green with a white and black headscarf on top.

This anthology contains work from Synchronized Chaos’ contributor Graciela Noemi Villaverde and may be ordered here.

Curated by John P. Portelli, Unsilenced: Poems for Palestine brings together poets from Palestine, the diaspora, and globally—including renowned names like Fady Joudah, Leila Marshy and Marwan Makhoul alongside some 50 international poets.

This collection is not just a book—it’s a fundraiser. 100% of proceeds will go to support Gaza, providing support and solidarity.

Now for this issue! Staying Human.

Solitary figure with skinny legs and a backpack navigates an empty room towards a beam of light. Black and white image aerial view.
Image c/o Bob Price

Haroon Rachid contemplates his country’s potential turn towards war, vowing to hold onto his humanity through culture, thought, and study. Bahora Bakhtiyorova reminds us of the impending challenge and risk of climate change. Ahmed Miqdad despairs of life in war-torn Gaza as Maria Miraglia mourns and rages about the loss of children. Mykyta Ryzhykh speaks to the trauma of surviving wartime as a civilian as well as the grief of romantic rejection and heartbreak. Mesfakus Salahin portrays a person who has lost his humanity and become like an automaton in the face of trauma. Elisa Mascia speaks to the challenges of holding onto truth and authenticity in a harsh world.

Eva Petropolou Lianou, in a piece translated into Albanian by Eli Llajo, shares a sensitive soul’s reflection on living in a harsh world. Brooks Lindberg addresses the limitations of being in space and time with a human body. David Sapp speaks in his poetry to some of the ever-present anguish of being human: mortality and grief, anxiety and trauma, as Steven Bruce poetically expresses lonesomeness and acknowledges the inevitability of death. J.J. Campbell vents about a variety of physical, emotional, and relational pain and loneliness as Liliana Mirta Ramirez writes evocatively of an impending storm.

Soumen Roy explores both the expansive sense of feeling at one with the universe and joining in its creative energy and the despair and emptiness we feel at other times. In a similar vein, Lidia Chiarelli speaks both to the fanciful whimsy of dreams coming to life and the urgency of preserving our environment before it becomes a wasteland. Mahbub Alam also references tragedy and restoration in the human and natural world as Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa speaks to the joy of unity among people of different backgrounds and the futility of revenge.

We find solace in a variety of places.

Dr. Jernail S. Anand illuminates the healing and restorative power of poetry as Sayani Mukherjee takes joy in verse as a bee does landing on a juicy and fragrant flower. Elisa Mascia celebrates a fresh flowering of creativity.

Hawk flies overhead a field with a wooden fence, grass, and barren trees and a farmhouse in the distance. Sky is blue with scattered high clouds.
Image c/o Brian Barbeito

Brian Barbeito speculates on the beauty and mystery of wild nature as Stephen Jarrell Williams describes how intertwined even modern people are with the lives of natural creatures. Isabel Gomez de Diego photographs food and blossoms, sensual joys of life. Rizal Tanjung reviews Anna Keiko’s delicate poetry about everyday experiences and thoughts. Christina Chin and Uchechukwu Onyedikam celebrate the mystery and beauty of everyday life in their joint tan-renga poems. Qurbonboyeva Dilafruz Sherimmatovna and Andaqulova Mohinur Juraqulovna share recipes and serving suggestions and a history of the Central Asian dried dairy food qurut. Kylian Cubilla Gomez’ photographs celebrate children’s colorful toys and adult knickknacks.

Murrodullayeva Makharram offers her rapturous joy at a dream visit to Mecca and the Kaaba. Maria Miraglia’s poetry explores religious doubt and the staying power of cultural belief. Izmigul Nizomova’s short story illustrates how spiritual faith can help people process intense feelings of romantic passion or grief, as Maja Milojkovic speaks to her belief in an ever-present God.

Nilufar Tokhtaboyeva’s rhyming poem mirrors the energy of the sea. Dimitris Fileles also looks to the ocean, for peace and comfort.

Balachandran Nair comically mocks artists and writers whose ego isolate them from family and community. In contrast, poet Eva Lianou Petropolou Lianou reflects on fellow poet Vo Thi Nhu Mai’s warmth and kindness as much as her craft.

Dr. Ahmad Al-Qaisi takes pleasure in the simple joy of coffee with a friend as Kareem Abdullah crafts tender love poetry and Christopher Bernard’s poetic speaker vows to love their honest-to-a-fault friend even if love is complete foolishness. Shoxista Haydarova pays tribute to her loyal and caring father, as Manik Chakraborty reflects on the nurture of his mother. Murodullayev Umidjon speculates on the nature of friendship. Umarova Nazokat celebrates a mother’s tender love as Nurullayeva Ra’no highlights mothers’ care, devotion, and concern for their children and Dr. Jernail Anand reflects on the vital role of mothering. Maftuna Rustamova reminds us to honor and respect our parents because of the love and care they have shown us, as Graciela Noemi Villaverde describes the unique personalities of each of her beloved grandsons. Chimezie Ihekuna turns to the loyalty of family as a balm for human vulnerability as Priyanka Neogi speaks to the love and responsibilities of marriage.

Bouquet of flowers with pink roses, blue and purple flowers
Image c/o Isabel Gomez de Diego

Duane Vorhees’ poetry explores physical and romantic intimacy while digging deep into the self. Michael Todd Steffen presents a memorial tribute that’s a character sketch of a strong and driven person with plenty of personal agency, for good or ill.

Taylor Dibbert asserts his newfound self-love after years of experience. Babajonova Charos draws inspiration from Pablo Coelho’s characters’ journeys to self-actualization and intimacy in The Alchemist. Alan Catlin crafts a literary and personal narrative through a list of memories.

Self-respect can encompass more than merely the self, and many writers take pride in their cultures. Marjona Mardonova reflects on the strength and dignity of Uzbek women and girls as several elementary school students in China contribute poetic thoughts on their hometowns, nature, heritage, and inspiration. Rizal Tanjung translates into Indonesian an essay by Konstantin Fahs on how ancient myths still speak to Greece’s contemporary struggles and questions of identity, highlighting the universal nature of these questions.

Z.I. Mahmud explores themes of racism, misogyny, and Black women’s reasserted dignity and healing in Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. Daniel De Culla presents a tale of vigilante justice served at an aquarium.

Woven doll figure on top of a globe, resting on the North Pole. Globe is on a desk with other writing and art implements.
Image c/o Kylian Cubilla Gomez

Bruce Roberts recollects the decorum and honor he saw in the days of American president Abraham Lincoln and laments how far the United States has fallen since then.

Uzbek writer Azizbek Shaymurzayev celebrates and honors the soldiers and leaders who founded Uzbekistan. Dilbek Ergashev offers up a poetic tribute to Uzbek writer Muhammad Yusuf, who captured the nation’s heritage and met an untimely death. Shamsiya Khudoynazarova Turumovna finds elegance in a portrait of a woman reading.

Yet, Yusuf certainly passed along the baton in the relay race of Central Asian literary and academic thought. Farangiz Xurramova outlines grammatical differences between Uzbek and French. Yunusova Khodisa contributes many scholarly essays in the humanities, including one on the form and structure of words, another on play as a technique for teaching foreign languages to young children, a piece on the need for clarity in a language teacher’s speech, another on methods of translation and strategies for developing competence in the discipline, and finally, an article on ways to teach different types of communication activities in a foreign language.

Moving to other fields of inquiry, Azganush Abdulmajalova’s poetry finds wonder in invention, physics, and mechanics. Shermatova Hilola Mirzayevna and Tolqinboyeva Odinaxon outline possibilities of modern information technology. Aytuvova Khurshida’s essay outlines modernizing reforms in education, particularly the use of technology. Muminova Farida highlights the importance of teaching primary school students critical thinking skills.

Fanciful statue of Edgar Allan Poe, billowing coat in the wind, walking with a strong stride, scary raven opening his briefcase. He's on a modern city scape, walking on brick with trees and a stoplight behind him and hair blowing in the wind. Copper is green with age.
Image c/o Jacques Fleury

Dr. Perwaiz Sharharyar, in poetry translated by Maria Miraglia, highlights the world-expanding power of travel. Vo Thi Nhu Mai’s gentle poetry celebrates animals, the world’s children, and the vibrant multicultural city of Perth.

Latofat Amirova craves a life of rebellion, curiosity, and adventure while Jacques Fleury probes the uncanny dark motifs of Edgar Allan Poe’s creative genius.

In a similar spirit of artistic exploration, Texas Fontanella contributes some exploratory beats and guitar chords. Vernon Frazer’s new book Nemo Under the League, reviewed by Cristina Deptula, splashes together text, line, and image. Terry Trowbridge grows a fanciful poem about a potato facing surveillance and arrest as Zeboxon Akmalova’s poem reflects the experience of overhearing fragments of conversation as J.K. Durick explores our reactions to words, sounds, and numbers in daily life. Mark Young’s “geographies” explore fanciful locations as works of art.

Finally, Bill Tope’s short story satirizes the world of small magazine publishing and reminds us all not to take rejections too seriously. Humor can prove one of the small, and larger, ways we hold onto our humanity as we navigate this world.

Poetry from Sayani Mukherjee

Flower

The beautiful white of musked roses
Smelled heavenly as I longed to see
A bright torpedo colour of blue skim
The butterfly vision over me
As I stranded over the cliffs of greenery
I swam a great high
Poetry is like flower
Bright beautiful pansies in a summer day
The long twisted hauled letters smiled at me
The mailed by the night circus of grappling intensity
As I turned around and saw the zeal of monsoon rain
Little sprinkled water of bucketed truth
As the flowers fell over my tip toed joy. 

Poetry from Nurullayeva Ra’no

Central Asian girl with dark hair up in a bun and a white collared blouse under black overalls.

ANGEL MOTHER ON EARTH! 

Giving my life for you 

Praying every morning. 

It is true that there is an angel in heaven 

Angel mother on earth! 

Working day and night 

Burning for her child 

She who supplicates to God, 

As an angel mother on earth! 

If they are near you, when you are paying attention, 

You will be lucky because of her prayers 

Praying and asking for happiness. 

As an angel mother on earth! 

If you are sick, you have a headache 

Thinking of you, my heart breaks every moment. 

Paradise is the only example 

As an angel mother on earth! 

Nurullayeva Ra’no was born on September 13,2007 in Denov district of Surkhandarya region and is now busy with creativity. The first author’s book of our creator was published under the name ” Denov’s young creative daughter. ” It also has about 20 international certificates. Also, the author’s creative works have been published in many anthologies, such as ” Kalb gavhari ” ” Collection of creators” and “High flights ” 

Poetry from Umarova Nazokat

A Mother’s Love

A mother’s love, a gentle grace,  

A soothing touch, a warm embrace.  

Through sleepless nights and endless days,  

She guides with wisdom, lights our ways.

Her hands that nurture, heal, and mend,  

A constant, steadfast, lifelong friend.  

Her voice, a melody so sweet,  

In every word, her heart’s heartbeat.

With patience vast as the open sky,  

She lifts us up, teaches us to fly.  

Her strength, a rock, unyielding, pure,  

In her love, we feel secure.

She’s the calm within the storm,  

A shelter safe, where hearts are warm.  

Her love, a beacon, always bright,  

Guiding us through the darkest night.

A mother’s love, a gift divine,  

In every moment, it does shine.  

Forever cherished, deep and true,  

A mother’s love, in all we do.

Umarova Nazokat was born on December 21,2005 Yunusabad district, Tashkent city of the Republic of Uzbekistan. She currently studies at Tashkent state university of Law. She achieved a lot of awards and achievements. She is a reader, a young poet, a researcher, the author of numerous articles, thesis and poems. She is learning five languages, besides, she is a participant in international forums, conferences, and webinars, graduated from several personal development courses, is a volunteer in her community and has achieved many other successes.

Essay from Maftuna Rustamova

Teen Central Asian girl with long dark hair, brown eyes, and a black jacket with a zipper.

Duty to parents

Parents are the people who worked hard for us to grow up, always thought of us, and fed us without eating. We must learn to appreciate our family members. Because if we don’t appreciate them now, we won’t regret their absence tomorrow.

Nowadays, some children live separately from their parents or take their parents to nursing homes. These people are those who have lost their innocence and childhood. Such vices are not suitable for human beings. ! It means someone.

We know that there are families that are similar to these families. Of course not!

Some children become rich and lose their poverty and become arrogant. First of all, they don’t see how hard their parents have worked. Parents run for their children, but instead of being thanked when they grow up, they cannot live comfortably.

I came to the conclusion from this essay that no matter how much you achieve and become arrogant, if you don’t respect your parents, none of it is useful. The more good you do to your parents, the more rewards you will get in the next world.

Dear parents, let’s appreciate them!

Short story from Ismigul Nizomova

Photo of a Central Asian woman with long dark hair, brown jacket, and dark patterned blouse inside a school ID with gold colors on a black and brown background.

Nizomova Ismigul Zarif qizi, Shakhrisabz State Pedagogical Institute Master’s student

Meeting

       Eyes meet.  The boy smiles at the girl.  The girl noticed it.  His heart began to beat as if it had burst out of its sheath.  He slowly looked at the ground and asked permission from his companion.

      Wow, man was created and he is destined to descend into a place of testing called the world.  Man’s life, love, career and even death is a test.  Only the Almighty knows the greatness and smallness of the trial and the level of his servant in the presence of God.  But love was not a simple test either.  It was a great test.  It was a hard test.  It was a test that every lover could not bear and could not receive his love.  It was a test of pure love, similar to the test of Yusuf and Zulaikha.  This is what the girl thought (she realized it when she grew up).   Thinking about it, the girl was at a loss for words.  He looked only into the eyes of the man in front of him.  He looked into the eyes of his beloved Suigani, the one he couldn’t forget even after years, the one he hoped to be together in heaven after the separation of the world.  The eyes in front of him smiled.  The girl couldn’t laugh.  The feelings are confused.

How must she feel, poor girl?  He didn’t notice as he walked out of his office.  What if we worked on the same team, if our gazes met every day.  He didn’t even know how he stopped the car with such thoughts in his head.  He cried on the way.  From the window of the car, she admired the beauty of the countryside in her youth, where she dreamed of going as a bride when she grew up.  But no such luck.   I wish it were as beautiful as this scene!  Sometimes ordinary eyes are not enough to notice beauty.  To realize the truth of beauty, besides two eyes, one also needs sight, that is, the eye of the heart.

Among the people of our time, those eyes are a blessing given only to the beloved of Allah.  “We didn’t get it,” the girl read.  ‘Well, I was young, but he is a man.  Are you happy now?  Is the world beautiful without me for the man who once said the world is beautiful with me?

      A few years ago, the girl noticed that the hardships, aches and pains in her heart began to affect not only her soul, but her body as well.  He realized this again when he looked in the mirror in his room.  Complaining of fever, headache, insomnia, he began to cry again in his dark room.  Complaining to anyone.  There is a reward for the pains that were not told to the mother.  This girl has pains and sorrows that she has not even told her mother about.  How can she tell her mother that the one love of her life, the God-given love of her life, has re-entered her life and begun to affect her feelings?

      No! No! I can’t tell her.  She records the sounds of her heart in her journal.  She seals it to make it easier for her.  Why is he smiling at me?  Or laughing at me?  Why was I surrounded by incomprehensible feelings: sadness, humiliation, crying, deceit?

      I was someone who loved, fought and lost.  That’s all.  I confessed.  My goal is near the valley of loneliness.  He loves me as his slave.

      Years later, she realized  That the only one she should trust, love, rely on and tell of her suffering was Allah.  Now, as always, she remembered a verse of her favorite song, “They don’t call him a rich man, he has no country, for he’s a piece of heart.”  “Yes, I have no country to my liking.  I must keep this wealth and riches pure and prepare to meet God who created me, loved me, made me love, tested me, blessed me and made me dearer than all.” 

“In sha Allah, the trials of life will one day end.  The answers to the exam will be tested.  And we will be victorious.  Our meeting will be beautiful.  Because you saved your money, I kept my love in my heart pure, and because I was able to laugh in this life even if it was hard.  My liquid!  Go and enjoy the ocean of knowledge, your students.  I said: “Allah.  I have a sea of patience.  With wishes for a beautiful meeting,” said the girl, entrusting her beloved to God, and went to sleep.

Poetry from Murodullayev Umidjon

Central Asian teen boy in a serious school uniform, black suit and tie with gold designs draws geometric designs at a table.

WHO IS A FRIEND?

Just yesterday, I saw a question posed,

Asking for a definition of true friends.

I paused, lost in thought, considering my response,

Six letters came to mind, a word so grand.

What qualities define a genuine friend?

The question pierced my heart, sharp and profound.

Then, with sincere hope, I could finally contend,

A pure heart, noble intentions, all around.

In times of hardship, a true friend will seek,

To offer solace, a companion’s embrace.

Words fail to capture the qualities we speak,

The kind of comrade humanity would embrace.

I haven’t found what my heart truly desires,

A true friend, a figure like parents so dear.

This longing within my soul still transpires,

For a bond so strong, a friend always near.

Murodullayev Umidjon Rustam o’g’li was born on November 2,2006,in the Narpay district of the Samarkand region.

He is currently a student of Tashkent State of Transport University.