First, here are a few announcements.

Jeff Rasley’s released a new book, Presbyterian vs Methodist Youth Group Rumble in Pokagon Park. This is a light-hearted satire of teen life and the heightened emotions of the age.

Jacques Fleury was also invited to the Boston Public Library’s Author Showcase to show off his title You Are Enough: The Journey Towards Accepting Your Authentic Self.

The National Storytelling Championship seeks online submissions from Indian nationals living in all parts of the world.

Now for our new issue, Revival and Rejuvenation.

Christopher Bernard celebrates the photography of urban chronicler Vivian Maier and the recent rediscovery of her work.

Gopal Lahiri’s poetry looks over varied landscapes – aging city infrastructure, a painted teatime scene, a rainstorm – with a painter’s thoughtful eye.

Wazed Abdullah draws on soft, childlike language to elegantly portray a monsoon rain in Bangladesh. Don Bormon writes in a similar style of the rain’s return in the region after a hot sunny summer. Tamoghna Dey speaks to the strength and flexibility of water as a metaphor.

Eva Petropoulou Lianou finds union with nature on her daily walk, taking inspiration from its diversity and authenticity. David Sapp’s poetry highlights our human connection to the rest of nature through musings on barns, fields, and a dead cat.

Chimezie Ihekuna revels in the beauty of nature and the intricate ways in which its systems work and creatures survive, but warns of its destruction. Graciela Noemi Villaverde also urges care for the natural world and highlights how natural systems can self-heal and regenerate.

Sayani Mukherjee revels in the passage of seasons in nature as Kylian Cubilla Gomez explores the hidden world of snails, centering the small mollusk in his photos. Sara Hunt-Flores reflects on the sun lighting her path, helping her distinguish illusion from reality.

Svetlana Rostova uses nature metaphors to convey the breadth and intensity of her past experiences. Mahbub Alam compares falling in love to the wonder of seeing a firefly. Shamsiya Khudoynazarova Turumnova illuminates the way love can revive a person and rejuvenate their life. Dr. Prasanna Kumar Dalai evokes memory and the ecstasy of falling in love. Mesfakus Salahin pleads with a lover to take him back as a response to his enduring feelings.

Stephen Jarrell Williams reflects on the poignancy and power of stories: those in books and those of family love and passing generations. Kassandra Aguilera’s poetry expresses love that remains despite troubled parental relationships. Bill Tope’s short story addresses a platonic and artistic friendship between a man and a woman and the tragic social disapproval that drives them apart.

Scott C. Holstad probes various sorts of physical and emotional desire. Duane Vorhees speaks to birth and death, love and war, then turns to a personal blues poem about feeling disillusioned by faith.

Gordana Saric offers up a prayer for personal compassion and global peace. Brian Barbeito shares daily musings on meaning and ethics and and speculates on our individual lives’ effects on the universe. Inayatullah encourages us all to look inward and heal our inner wounds and forgive each other in order to change the world on a larger scale.

Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa shares the hope and strength and healing she finds through her faith. K. Sayyid Mubashir Hadhi explicates the spiritual and cultural significance of Eid Al-Adha. Timothee Bordenave’s old-style pieces express his spiritual faith and desire for universal oneness. Bruce Mundhenke expresses how faith and wisdom can outlast our technologies and our inhumanity to each other. R.K. Singh calls us to ethnic and religious tolerance based on the world’s complex history and celebrates physical and spiritual love.

Dr. Jernail Singh speculates on how literature and drama, religious or not, can inspire moral development as well as catharsis, when villainy and evil are stopped. Matthew Kinlin interviews Kenneth M. Cale about the inspirations and creative process behind his book Midnight Double Feature: Director’s Cut, a stand against the growing darkness he sees in the world.

Lidia Popa describes the power of writing to transmute ideas and feelings into a mode of communication from one soul to another. Haroon Rashid outlines the role of silence, observation, and empty space for thoughtful writing in his ars poetica.

Xadjiyeva Nodira studies idioms and whether the phrases can take on different meanings within the same language. Kaljanova Gulmira’s paper outlines the benefits of having a language learner “shadow” a native speaker. Shahnoza Ochildiyeva’s essay explicates the complex task of translation and how, as of now, translation requires a human being with cultural awareness.

Isabel Gomes de Diego’s photography celebrates human and natural creativity in various forms: origami, sewing, typing. Bahora Mansurova turns to the craft of medicine, discussing ways to treat periodontal diseases. Linda S. Gunther reviews Kristina McMorris’ suspense novel of the newsroom, Sold on a Monday.

Nozima Gofurova describes an educational visit to Tashkent’s Mirzo Hotel, where she learned about Central Asian art and history. Joseph Ogbonna highlights the majesty and historical influence of ancient Egyptian civilization. Maja Milojkovic’s ekphrastic work draws inspiration from the strength of ancient Herakles.

Z.I. Mahmud explores feminist speculative literature in India and the works of Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein. Bhagirath Choudhary, in a piece translated by Eva Petropoulou Lianou, advocates for respect for women and for society to celebrate positive traits traditionally associated with the nurturing feminine.

Eva Petropoulou Lianou speaks of her intimate and demanding relationship with her female poetic muse. Isaac Dominion Aju reflects on the artistic inspiration he received from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose work helped him to find his own voice. Donna Dallas’ poetic speakers find writing inspiration from a quiet morning, a busy urban city full of desire, and the throes of drug addiction. Hauwa’u Naseer Mukhtar evokes the peace and creative source of solitude as Chloe Schoenfeld resolutely affirms her claim to her own soul.

Kelly Moyer’s asemic poetry invites us to the experience of appreciating writing and art, even without literal meaning. Ric Carfagna’s poetry touches on perception, how we experience and make sense of our world.

Loki Nounou reflects on life’s unpredictability, as S. Afrose exposes existence’s slippery nature, complex and hard to pin down and define. Utso Bhattacharyya’s short story involves an ordinary man’s visit to a surreal reality existing alongside and within our own.

Alex S. Johnson’s horror tale probes the insidious way oppression works not only through violence, but also through individual and social gaslighting. Mark Young’s poetry crafts off-kilter scenes where people and other creatures adjust to their settings.

J.J. Campbell turns to poignant nostalgia while experiencing slow trauma. John Angelo Camomot’s verse speaks to the grief of losing a loved one and the comfort of memories.

Sean Meggeson’s humorous tales probe our relationships with authority and failures of communication. On the theme of authority, Taylor Dibbert observes wryly that leaders who are least affected by policies are often the first to advocate for them.

Mykyta Ryzhykh’s short story depicts war as an unwelcome trespasser, refusing to communicate its intentions or ask permission to occupy someone’s basement. Ahmed Miqdad laments the suffering of civilians in Gaza while expressing hope for the region. Combat veteran Steven Croft speculates on goals for a possible return to United States military intervention in Afghanistan and hopes they will finally get girls back to school.

Sadoqat Qahramonovna To’rayeva reflects on pursuing education as a child and teen in his humble farming village. Marjona Baxtiyorovna sends out a tribute to education and graduating students.

We hope this issue is educational, inspiring, and enjoyable!

The Ancient One  

Before the stars began to shine, 

Or the moon was a pale light in the night , 

Eons came and went, 

In this age we live in, 

Stories were told and retold, 

Until lost in the in the mists of time. 

Many wise men shared their wisdom, 

And their truths were made known 

To the world.. 

But the people walked on in darkness, 

Trampling their truths as they went. 

Their weapons became more and more fearsome, 

And they had help with the evil they chose. 

The Ancient One is watching, 

He knows this too shall pass, 

He seen it come,  

And He watched it go, 

He is the first and the last. 

Water

Once a man went near a sea and said to the water, “Tell me something about you.” The water said to the man, “I can bring flood and can destroy a country, People drink me when they feel thirst, People use me to wash their bodies.” After hearing this the man again said to the water, “You have so much power that you can destroy a country but you always take the shape of the thing where you’re kept.” Saying this, the man took water in a pot and went from there.

Monsoon in Bangladesh

Clouds roll in over fields so wide,

Raindrops fall and rivers glide.

Bamboo bends as winds rush through,

Leaves dance in a world turned new.

Children splash in muddy streams,

Village ponds reflect gray dreams.

Monsoon sings on tin roof tops,

Till the final raindrop stops.

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

HANDS – THEY SHOOK AND THEN…

They futured like gods.

This hand (call it woman),

that hand (call it man)

togethered an applause.

Their fists of spider,

their architect fingers,

built patterns of gauze.

One blob (called embryo)

soon became elbows

attached to hands and jaws

that grew into prayers

to clapclapclap their heirs.

BELLUM PARTUM

And the whole earth with death and death-cries filled, My Lai,

Might long remember the face of suffering Dresden!

This is a battle hard to endure, and grim. Gaza Gaza Gaza

— Dorothy L Sayers tr The Song of Roland

Like zealots

coked on bullets,

the soldiers spread

metal sperm

into harems, 

their birth of death.

The bomber

was in labor,

sucked a deep breath,

dropped her load,

her egg of blood,

her birth of death.

GRACELESSLY WAITING

Now, hum, chant, dust off the altar.

Calf’s already gutted for slaughter.

All I need now is the priestess.

“Just hold me in honor, hold me in awe,

my fine and gaudy mistress.

I pray you, Make me your god.”

But you released me, to wander

beyond the range of my hymns.

And left me here to conjure

you, incarnate, back from a dream.

So, carefully, I detail your temple

with incense to be purified.

But I’m running low on these candles

while watching the calfling putrefy.

DIRTY BLUES

Log on the fire burning into white ash.

Stick in fireplace turning into white ash.

When the fire’s cold, thrown out with the trash.

Used up, ejected, treated just like dirt.

Disposed, rejected, tossed out same as dirt.

One unravelling thread dooms the entire shirt.

Condom in the corner when the passion’s spent,

Tossed into the corner after love is spent.

One more unmourned dead soldier in the tent.

Expired, discarded, discharged just like dirt.

Damned and abandoned, swept out just like dirt.

Maybe not dead yet, maybe just hurt.

Mission finished, an empty toothpaste tube.

Purpose over, a used-up toothpaste tube.

Just gum on the fanblade after it’s chewed.

Tossed out, discarded, forgotten — just dirt!

Thrown out at the wedding, now I am dirt:

Left-over confetti lying in the church.

Log in the fire burning into white ash.

Wood on the fire turning into fine ash.

My steady warmth for you spurned in a flash!

Disposed, dejected, treated just like dirt.

Thrown out, ejected, treated worse than dirt.

One unravelling thread dooms the whole damn shirt.

BREEZES — GALES

My lifetrain went to pieces

when it jackknifed off the rails.

Buddha showed the eightfold path.

I lost it on the freeway.

I had memorized the prayers

but I couldn’t do the math.

Some others got the Jesus

but I got stuck with the nails.

Ancient Egypt 

Ancient Egypt, the realm of the pharaohs.

You have your exalted heights for the vulture,

and a serpentine viceroy for your depths.

Amun-Ra enjoys your deification,

as one who radiates a smile upon you by day.

The king of gods and their dexterous magnificence.

He speaks from the burning sky and the air!

Anytime leanness threatens your neighbours,

the life giving nile extracts your lush green.

Having flowed like milk from pendulous breasts.

You sourced your indelible prints and texts

from versatile cyperus papyrus.

On your hieroglyphs we see you revealed,

so do we at the valley of the kings.

The many gods defined and still define you.

Your culture, your life and the underworld 

are all by Osiris and Nephthys controlled.

The old kingdom, the middle and the new

are all at Memphis, Thebes and Pi-Rameses seen.

The pyramids of Giza distinguish you as one wonder of the world for all civilizations seen!

One magical Egypt, the precursor of modern civilizations.