A rose
You are the epitome of beauty.
The king of flowers is the rose.
Bringing joy to the surroundings
You open rose.
If I see you, it's mine
My dust will spread.
My heart is full of joy
It opens, rejoices.
Your fragrance is all around
Gives a lot of joy
My mother who loved you
Their hearts will light up.
Your colors are also different
Yellow, pink, white, red
Always be like this
The king of flowers is the rose !
✍️ Shakhzoda Kodirova
Shakhzoda Kodirova was born on May 20, 2007 in Navoi. From a young age she was fond of literature. She started writing stories and poems when she was ten and her poems have been translated into many languages and published in many countries, including Uzbekistan, Germany, America and Belgium. She is a booklover and coordinator of Girls’ Voice. Also she is an official member of GFS and an ambassador of the Iqra foundation. Her first book My Grandfather’s Garden has been published in Uzbekistan. At the moment she is an editor of Germany’s Raven Cage magazine and of Synchronized Chaos, and she is am ambassador of the IFCH and SPSC foundations.
1/ On Grote Street – Lopsided
A sculpture by the Central Market
An elongated box
standing on one corner
a time machine
a spacecraft
to admire
to hop into
to hope for a different time
‘What happened to the phone box?’
she asks
‘It’s built for lopsided conversations,’
I say
for conversations across time and space
where the corner of sharpness
is buried in the ground
forming an unstable base
with the elongated box
about to topple off
unless the sharpness is
the point of contention
buried in the ground
the hatred can no longer bite
is no more
no more
for the benefit of all
and the planet
a dream
an out of space whisper
contained within glass pans
of a contemporary TARDIS
and the doctor --
will she come
will she save
this earth yet again?
Girl Slide at Rundle Mall
2/ Not a royal nor Grand Victory
The Girl on a Slide -John Dowie (SA), Rundle Mall
Was published in InDaily Adelaide (9th Feb. 2022)
She is joy frozen in time
exuberant, bewitching
in my photo, her left foot is enormous
kicking at phantoms
it’s the perspective, though
nothing to do with what's real
and what's real is a slight sprightly kid
cast into bronze, sliding down a slop
arms and legs outstretched
plaits mirroring limbs, blown in the air
she’s enchantment caught in mid-slide
in busy Rundle Mall
amid the rushing of shoppers
she makes me look up to the sky
a blue ribbon
a pause among concrete giants.
Pigeon at Rundle Mall
3/ Pigeon
(On Rundle Mall, SA)
Lonely letters
tied to pigeon’s breasts or legs
warmed by feathers
swept by air
some never arrive
some were never sent
left in sealed envelopes
shoved into drawers
abandoned in shoe boxes
in jars
alone or bundled with others
a lone letter is found
it’s held in trembling hands
the envelope is slit open
a thin paper is pulled out
in reverence (perhaps)
a pause
she breathes in
checking the handwriting
while shadows linger on the wall
she bends her head
a photo slides
from between pages
followed by a sigh of relief
she reads fast
rereads slowly and again
whispering groaning
tears filling her eyes
now laughter springs
while the hands
arthritic and chipped
morph into youthful grace.
What Is the Opposite of Politics?
A shift of rain in the trees.
A snow globe in a sandbox.
My cousin's scuffed knees.
What is the cost of mercy?
A spade of silent rust.
You'll never know if justice
is less refined than dust.
Who is that fellow singing?
I never knew his kind.
You say he's rough and tender.
I hope to live forever
if heaven is his mind.
_____
Christopher Bernard’s most recent book is A Socialist’s Garden of Verses, winner of a 2021 PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award and named one of the “100 Top Indie Books of 2021” by Kirkus Reviews. He is founder and a principal, with Ho Lin, Steven Hill, and Jonah Raskin, of the webzine Caveat Lector.
American Literature And Its Borders Interwoven Themes of Homeland, Migrations and Deportation In Tennessee Williams’ Masterpiece Screenplay ‘A StreetCar Named Desire’
Brief Biography of the contributing author and symposium paper presenter: An undergraduate student of the English and Humanities Department affiliated with Brac University. The correspondent wishes to study English Literature with profundity as his majoring engrossment. ‘Synchronized Chaos’-American interdisciplinary journal, ‘Reader’s Digest Asia’, ‘Youth Magazine’ Libyan printed and electronic editions and varieties of Indian Literary Anthologies have treasured and glorified his narratives.
Abstract Writing: Multifaceted charismatic character Blanche Dubois’ spectral specks hollers, lingers and muses amidst the epochs of twentieth century pandemic macabres. How ‘ruptures’ and ‘resilience’ will feed the lecture theater banquet hall with quintessential dialogues inversion as in the speech of Stanley and Blanche Dubois’ beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart’s sustenance ;which have culminated through ‘relentlessness of times’, ‘sorrow’, ‘fear’, ‘recriminations’ and ‘regrets’. And how the gusto and oomps prevail in transforming stage actors as belligerent shoppers despite emerging pandemic.
Phenomenal and mercurial Blanche Dubois’ catharsis hollering with the photograph on the mantelpiece as a reminiscence of her awesome memorabilia sunken treasures. In the abyss of wretchedness the patronage and legacy of endowments languishes the fulfillment of American Dreams. Her phantom haunts like a hobgoblin in theaters, brothels, asylums and rehabilitation centers amidst the epoch of twenty first century’s pandemic macabres. The purpose of this paper perhaps might be engrossed ‘raptures and resilience’ in the canons of psychoanalysis and feminist critical literary theories. However, I wish to spotlight the facets of ruptures and resilience in the ‘diasporic migrational drift’ of this stellar feminine character.
We might wonder and marvel at the laurel lifelike character through digging her cherished suitcases, closets, attics, chests and whatsoever. In reality, she is not cynical or skeptic but hilarious and explosive; i.e. circumstances and implications foreshadowings of uncertainty, ambiguities and nihilism echoing resonance of ‘Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot’s personified caricature Lucky. Unemployment crisis together with identity crisis have ironically fretted Tennessee William’s scapegoat to the menaces and diabolical: vicious cycles of life and death.
Crumbling walks upon a lakeshore, dwindling with inglorious and inauspicious memories of the past; Tennessee Williams’ Blanche Dubois’ portrayal limelights her daylight shudders to night of endless darkness. And we are reminded by the tragic events of wartimes genocides, Holocaust survivors’ horror and terror, mass graveyard burials... Are they suffice and benefice to the interiority of split personality and schizophrenic Blanche Dubois and she is sensed as a resemblance of the dear sister. Siblinghood of fraternity can cast a glimmer of unraveling the sheerness of her identity.
Through ruptures and resilience we will be stepping the stony gravel amidst an avalanche of unprecedented disruption and outbreak of pandemic. The lecture theater hallway by this gravity of the situations’ momentum will be drinking with thine eyes of eerie creature Blanche Dubois’ wit of impishness and caprice. In the prevalence of epidemics’ insurgency had the playwright twisted motifs and plots of what would be likely interpretations in fancy of will-o-the-wisp will foster food for thought in the banquet hall.
Pathetic fallacy benignly fascinates the aura of imagery in the readers’ imaginative minds with the line, ‘ajar on a sky of summer brilliance’. Blanche utters a moaning cry and throws herself down away from the bathroom beside Stella in a sense of hysterical tenderness and chastises her for being fondling and affectionate to Stanley-brother-in-law and Stella’s brutish husband. Gaudy pajamas of Stanley hanging from the threshold of the bathroom and the act of Stella’s picking broom to sweeping, swirling and twirling as if idiosyncratically justifying the frenzied attitude and sheerness of absolute lunacy of Stanley. To Stella’s being Stanley’s defense solicitor, she argues to justify that the defamed Stanley being preyed upon by victimization on the pretext of the condition that ‘men drinking and playing poker can do anything[inverted dialect would be: ‘Since there's a blazing unemployment crisis from layoffs amidst lockdown, we, men are justified in wine toasting and billiard pastimes’}. Further like Stanley, Stella’s preoccupation and fancy with movies and bridges acquit the blamed Stanley free of stringent estrangement.
“This shuffling about and mumbling-one smashed tube, beer-bottles, mess in the kitchen’’-as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened’’ This Blache’s quotable quote dramatizes the climax of the scene four with stupendous and stupefying humor, irony and sarcasm when paralleled with Stella’s counterfeit. “He [Stanley] snatched off one of my slippers and rushed about the place smashing the light-bulbs with it. ’’
Figurative tropes and figurative techniques have been embellishing the incredibly insightful read of this very scene with emerald treasures of metaphor, simile, personification and hyperbole. ‘He [Stanley] was as good as a lamb’ highlights the simile of Tennessee Williams in depiction of the naivety and innocence of Stanley Kowalski’s personae. Christmas Eve holiday seasons, Blanche Dubois’s gala with Shep Huntleigh- getting on his Cadillac Boulevard long drive touring through the dusky Biscayne Boulevard. Intimating college acquaintance character’s hyperbolic and metaphorical descriptions of personage, trip of investment since meeting ‘‘someone with a million dollar investment’’ and ‘the City of Texas’ literally ‘spouting gold in his pockets’’.
Belle Reeve is a persisting hackneyed influence of Southern state of St Louis Mississippi Antebellum aristocracy with plantation of cotton and tobacco employing marginalized African American minority diaspora [ethnic community subjugated by oppressive and suppressive culture of exploitation through slavery]. However, post antebellum New Orleans and the Elysian Fields Kowalski villa the emerging absurdist playwright’s modernity plastic theater evidently becomes a thriving society to breed characters like Blanche Dubois. Blanche, the ‘destitute mammoth’ of Belle’s provision of pocket money, family allowance and public relief in the worst nightmarish Stanley household incites modern day contemporary readers with the paradigms of Blanche figure with morale as depicted by the illustrious repertoire of Stella upon extending five dollars share [from the ten dollars gifted by Stanley to smooth things over]. Blanche’s anachronistic bigotry is a striking prejudice; which, nevertheless, demarcates the reality of Stanley's appearance of character. Not a ‘‘particle’’ of ‘’gentleman in his nature’’ exhibit bestial and animalistic force of Stanley upon Blanche Dubois embarking brutal desire- “Desire!’’—that name of the rattle trap street car that bangs through the Quarter, up one old narrow street and down another….’’
Eventually climax and resolution of the drama have been showcased through the red letter day of Blanche Dubois’ trapped maidenhood at stake because of Stanley’s bestial interference in her privacy; and the subsequent admittance of the former’s to the mental health infirmary by the vigilance of Doctor and Nurse.
Bathos; the ironic use of banality through hyperbolic exaggeration that results in the failure for satiric or humourous effects. ‘Egyptian Queen’ might and perhaps transcends allusions to ‘Desdemona’; yet Stanley- the king wearing silk pyjamas shirtless fulfills the illegitimate and adulterous affair of sexual gratification through rape of Blanche Dubois. Shep Huntleigh’s fantasy, sensory illusion and hallucinatory delusion, awkward fancy attire such as the rhinestone crown of Blanche -the ‘lurid’ reflections of ‘grotesque’ and ‘menacing’ ambience.
Tragic heroine, Blanche dupes a vindictive claim in assertion of her chastity and virginity- “A cultivated woman, a woman of intelligence and breeding, can enrich a man’s life-immeasurably!’’ To herself, she boasts of her beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit and tenderness of the heart which increases to grow as ages reach maturity.
This scene further highlights the identity crises and classes of diasporic cultures prevalent in post world war modern times. The tragic figure Blanche throws further light upon her lunacy as intimidating encounters with the Doctor and Nurse. “Oh, my God! What have I done to my sister’’-the loyal and devoted sisterly Stella Dubois’s sympathy and empathy coincides despite the triumphs of two brute forces between the clashes of different cultures. In the world of Stanley, a moth chameleon doesn’t exist. On the contrary, the world of Blanche has reservations for fantasy and magic and the abolition of reality.
The breaking down of ‘silver mirror’ and the symbolic attire of ‘white satin robe’ manifests cataclysmic catastrophe that ruins the prospects of Blanche Dubois’ survival turning her as a destitute of the asylum. ‘Relentlessness of time’, ‘sorrow’, ’fear’, ’recriminations’, ‘regrets’ and so on by the reflections of “wrinkles’’ and ‘’bags of the eyes’’ casted upon her silvery mirror. Eminent Indian literary critics of noteworthy publication interpreted her depressive melancholy with ‘mental malady’. Imaginative fictional myths of mothlike figures aren’t tolerated in the Kowalskis' apartment. Therefore, bestial Stan disdains her upon fabrications of Sheep Huntleigh’s fantasy cruise to the Caribbean and Mitchell’s flower bouquet of apology.
Minor characters are symbolic representations of Tennessee Williams’ A StreetCar Named Desire. Tennessee Williams will be endowed homage in his repertoire of symbolist movement. After the Mexican lady and here comes the symbolic Negro woman stealing the vanity bag of the drunk raped prostitute. In this anticipation, the desecrating robbing of Blanche’s privacy and honor by Stanley is embellished. Furthermore, the Western Union symbolically features the breakdown of civilization and cultural catechism. And the swelling music of the blue piano resonates comical relief meant to underscore the undergoing violence that is being penetrated on Blanche. Finally the drama witnesses anticlimax through the blue eyes of Allan Grey-the former deceased admirer remembrances by Blanche. Further Blanche’s epilogue ‘’Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers’’ leaves no stones unturned in foolishness of wits and impudence of lunacy.
‘Ruptures and Resiliency’ are entombed and enshrined by vessels of literature heralding the eminence and prominence of Tenessee Willaims’ brevity of theatrical production and lucidity in film adaptations. Dear audience, I proclaim in ecstasy of glee, “Ah, Tennessee Williams shall be unhackneyed dimestore even in context of quintessential evolutionary viral outbreaks.” The reportage of Guardian mesmerizes subscribers when they are tantalized by the iconic commentary of Gillian Anderson; whose claim “I was hanging on to a reality by a thread” whilst her shopping errands would be effervescent ether hadn’t she possessed the belligerence of mental strength.
The Feel of Christmas
Every day is a celebration day
But on this day, it’s a Special Day;
the feel is just not ordinary
Every day is a merry-making day
But on this day, it’s in itself a Merry Day;
the feel is just not a ‘’normally’’
Every day is a reflection day
But on this day, it’s a Stand-out, Sober-Reflection day;
the feel is just not temporarily
Every day is a gift-exchange day
But on this day, it’s a memorable Boxing Day;
the feel is just not materially
Every day is a should-be ‘’Christmas’’ day
But on this day, it’s actually a Christmas Day!
the feel is just not a mere Christmas frenzy!
Graciously, I developed the attitude and habit for listening to various radio #media organizations such as BBC, CVC, VOA, RCI, RFI just to mention a few. However, all occurred due to the enthusiasm for the short-wave of international transmissions. To be precise, whilst growing up as young curious teenager with eagerness to be a mimic of any elocution broadcaster I hear the accent-cadence on the airwaves. Incredibly, it’s rather an opportune moment when one preacher-man realized the potentials and capabilities in me after completion of second cycle school education. Therefore, he asked me to join his program on a particular radio station in the city of Takoradi where in actual fact my up-bringing began as young boy on the suburban street of Amanful West. It was additional value to unearth the other talent in me when I sung alongside a co-equal lady to record signature-tune for that memorable Christian program dubbed Power Word of Jesus on Radio Maxx 105.1 FM. These were all moments of discovery to establish myself from local to global level in terms of radio broadcasting which has definitely continued as passion and routine of daily lifestyle. It’s another enthusiastic and joyous moment as my presence in the broadcasting studio brought about regular decision as live introducer of the program on-air courtesy Radio Maxx 105.1 FM in the first locale in Takoradi, Western Region of Ghana. I quite remember, having the pleasure to say “It’s time for the Power Word of Jesus broadcast with Reverend Nyameyeke Wireku”. That’s really the first time of being behind a radio microphone which I never panicked but by His divine motivation I was able to deliver by speaking to the listening audience. That’s over fifteen (15) years ago!
Unfortunately, the program had a stoppage due to lack of sponsorship to continue airing. Well, it was yet another fantastic breakthrough moment as I became a time-keeper and chosen among others as producer of a Quiz program on different radio station i.e. (Kyzz 89.7 FM) located within the same metropolis of the Western Region, Ghana. Unto Him is all the glory as I ably coped with most acts of the program. Having, established and exhibited many technicalities in the broadcast studio of Kyzz 89.7 FM. Well later on, I was given another worthwhile opportunity as a panelist on rather quite debatable program dubbed Born To Win with its feminine host being cordial and professional. This went on for about five weeks, thus on Sundays when the Scripture-based quiz program entitled Radio Bible Quiz #RBQ comes to an end. Amongst other things, within the same locality or neighborhood where I domicile another radio station was established so often-times I went to the studio to assist during phone-in segment of a lunch-time program. Although, that station collapsed at the time, I never gave-up to become professional journal fellow. Thus, be it on-air or on-line! Much admiration have been absorbed within because I’ve had times of being a producer on diverse programs ranging from social to spiritual on numerous local radio stations. Aside, it’s been worthwhile experience and exposure to various media networks.
Remarkably, it’s through writing by post and typing on the internet that impressively opened the doors of opportunity for me to become abreast with most of the widely listened to global media power-houses. Obviously, some still appreciate the daily, weekly and even monthly contributions I make to their programs. In reminiscence, the launch of an affiliate international radio station in the Western Region of Ghana also rekindled my participation on interactive and debatable topic to mark International Women’s Day on 8th March, 2011. So, just imagine the feeling when your submission is short-listed or selected on top of various contributions for airing on a highly recognized radio stations around the globe. It’s yet another achievement of a sort to be admirable about! An impact-making moment of having the tendency to read my own composed poems for recording together with written articles was also a move on higher pedestal. Aside, to express views on some topical issues centered on African perspective. No doubt, that also paved the way in terms of familiarization and recognition among discerning listeners of radio with international appeal.
Currently, in relation to the new television concept as virtual #online TV show dubbed Time With Ike Boat #TWIB which commenced on the aftermath of brief audition at the Morrash Media House #MMH at Kasoa, Central Region of Ghana. It’s another quick move to ensure that the television dream becomes a reality, hence there’s pre-production led by the Manager and Producer, Sir Perry Adams. He’s such a gifted and talented media figure with insightful knowledge about music respectively. On the first ever live streaming on Facebook, graciously I hosted Madam Anna Cole an Entrepreneurial woman and Fashion Designer as well an expatriate of the United Kingdom. Moving on, the second episode had me alone in studio unfolding the ordeal I faced being hospitalized for weeks due to ailment, thus leading to various medical checks. It’s also time to express my heart of gratitude to all virtual and actual friends who helped the medical cost involved. However, the third Episode resonated with the personalized mantra Local To Global when I had the distinguished Director of MVLogos Hope in the personality of Mr. Randy Grebe (Missionary with Operation Mobilization-OM). This pre-recording and production was done at Tema Port onboard the vessels at VIP lounge. The web-link to watch, comment, Like, subscribe on YouTube via: https://youtu.be/oExbhBFrlY8
Last but not least, I can say with certainty and no shadow of doubt that many systematic approach to life and diversity people always makes it appropriate to share when the least opportunity is given. Factually, the first three paragraphs of this Arti-Blog had original concept written on paper 7th March, 2012 and completed as well re-written on 10th March, 2012 at 2:10pm. Indeed, it’s initially recorded as real-life radio documentary in a hood studio operated by Mr. Emmanuel Famiyeh at Amanful West in Takoradi, Western Region of Ghana, West Africa. Yes, it’s radio documentary centered on how my contribution and participation to local broadcasting led to the connection with some global journal minds, thus from country to country and continent to continent. Well, by virtue of on-air and on-line mediums of communication.
All Green Thumbs
You can trick a houseplant
into believing it is outside
by gently brushing your hand
softly against the leaves
bending the stems as if
they are out in the breeze
Strangers clustered
in a strong wind
at a stop
waiting
for the bus to come
____________________________
Battery Heaven
Hard to tell batteries apart
lying loose in a box in the back room
The bad eventually crust over
but there’s no way to determine the good
without popping one then another
into the remote
Try a different pole
Try rolling one then the other
around with your thumb
whatever it takes
desperate for signal
Get the angle right
Get close enough & there
is enough juice to get through
tonight
No negotiating with a spent cell
but power predictions are possible
& frequently wrong
The pizza place in town that takes
dead batteries has a slot
in a 5 gallon bucket lid for them
Who knows where they go from there
Battery heaven is filled
with cheapies that come with toys
very obviously of lower quality
than the ones bought at the store
Do it wrong & kill a car
The smoke detector cheeps
until the corpse is removed
Even the rechargeable don’t
last forever
____________________________
My advice
is to get out
of this town before you turn 20
Otherwise the broken store fronts
start to worry you
You might transmogrify
into a lamp post
become a fixture around here
Not like Gary who inherited
the hardware from his dad
George Bailey-ing his way
through his 50s as girls
softball coach & people love him
More like Sandy who will never
leave – there’s too much
out there she wants & feels
she doesn’t really deserve
but there is always just
a little less than what
she needs right here
It’s fine – it’ll be fine
The train doesn’t publish
it’s schedule so the terrorists
can’t formulate a plan
but it always seems to roll
through right when you think
maybe I shoulda left that one time
& then it’s gone & the crickets
return in the night certain
everything will be just fine
& it is, isn’t it?
____________________________
Our first date
1986
Took Mindy to see Platoon
We both liked war movies
Empty theatre perfect
for making out except
one angry vet
sobbing down front
in the horrible fog
They killed the good guy
is the only lesson learned
Too stunned even
to hold hands
we liked it
yeah – great film
Barber’s Adagio for Strings
swelling & enveloping
me later when
Mindy takes me
into her mouth
on a gravel road
next to some field
my hands clutching
air just like
Willem Dafoe
____________________________
Waiting for the future
to arrive as advertised
I hear a juvenile hawk
in the dense canopy
of the abandoned house
across the street
1000 years wheel
across the starry starry
until something different
happens & is it?
Every hill is always
the one we choose to die on
My car narc’d on me
now I’m too scared to drive
killing machines with fascists
Clock sounds digitized
making “simmer down” motions
with their useless hands
Everything is late late late
can’t happen soon enough
Even waiting is a waste
of time and energy
in the midst
of a long-haul dream
Let us then toast
to the ever-under-construction
freeway & pour one out
for all the dumb bugs
wending wayward into death
against the grills & shields
of inevitability
Waiting for the 20 years
implicit in the next advance
turn signal on too early
been on the last 100 years
I awake resembling something
extinct & pissed off about it
Not false Not spiritual Not grief
Anticipation & the wearing
down of might cliffs
to something manageable
A fun time on a wild ride
left with penetrating desire
to go go go
again
Tony Brewer is a poet and foley artist from Bloomington, Indiana. he has been nominated twice for a Pushcart Prize and his latest book is Pity for Sale (Gasconade Press). He is executive director of the Spoken Word Stage at the 4th Street Arts Festival and co-producer of the Writers Guild Spoken Word Series. More at tonybrewer71.blogspot.com.
