Peace

Prayers for a peaceful world

I dreamt about it

I closed my eyes years ago

I saw children playing with dolls

I keep my eyes closed

I am afraid to open them

Because when i opened my eyes, dead bodies exist everywhere

No schools

No home

No toys

I keep my eyes closed

I live peacefully

Eva Petropoulou Lianou 

Critical Appreciation: “Peace, Prayers for a Peaceful World” by Eva Petropoulou Lianou

In the realm of contemporary poetry, Eva Petropoulou Lianou’s “Peace, Prayers for a Peaceful World” stands as a powerful and poignant masterpiece that pierces the heart and soul of humanity. This poem is a profound exploration of the human experience, delving into the complexities of war, violence, and the longing for peace.

The poem’s central theme of the speaker’s dream of a peaceful world is a powerful metaphor for the universal human aspiration for harmony and tranquility. Lianou’s lines, “I dreamt about it / I closed my eyes years ago / I saw children playing with dolls,” create a vivid image of a world where innocence and joy reign supreme. However, the speaker’s reluctance to open their eyes, “Because when I opened my eyes, / dead bodies exist everywhere,” is a heart-wrenching reminder of the harsh realities of war and violence.

One of the most impressive aspects of this poem is its use of imagery and symbolism. The image of children playing with dolls is a particularly striking one, highlighting the ways in which war and violence destroy the innocence and joy of childhood. The contrast between the peaceful world of the speaker’s dream and the harsh reality of war is also noteworthy, underscoring the ways in which violence can shatter our hopes and dreams.

The poem’s themes of peace, war, and the human condition are equally compelling. Lianou’s lines, “No schools / No home / No toys,” speak to the ways in which war and violence can destroy the very fabric of our lives, leaving us without the basic necessities of human existence. The speaker’s decision to keep their eyes closed, “I keep my eyes closed / I leave peacefully,” is a poignant reminder of the ways in which we often try to escape the harsh realities of the world around us.

Throughout the poem, Lianou’s voice is characterized by its lyricism, depth, and emotional resonance. The poem’s message is both timely and timeless, speaking to the universal human aspirations for peace, harmony, and tranquility that transcend borders, cultures, and generations.

In conclusion, “Peace, Prayers for a Peaceful World” is a masterpiece of contemporary poetry that deserves to be widely read and studied. Eva Petropoulou Lianou’s poem is a powerful exploration of the human experience, peace, war, and the longing for a better world, and its themes of hope, resilience, and the human condition will resonate with readers long after they finish reading.

India  BHARAT

January 24, 2025

Dr Ashok Kumar from Baraut BAGHPAT UP INDIA BHARAT

The Three-Toed Sloth

Even when 
refurbished 
to incorporate 
beautiful en-

suites or worn 
with denim 
for a smart 
casual style

property derived 
from things from 
nature is a step
back in time.

The Bull Moose Convention

at Chicago is the successful result of the praxis of a fused group, unlike the states of antiquity & the great tangle of Marxist thought. It is a complex & powerful reiteration construct, its symbols fashioned from a bicycle seat & a set of corroded handle-bars with minimalist turn signals, its own words of power based upon the repetition of a handful of major triads, its rituals aligned with the cycles of withdrawal & return in morphine-dependent mice.

Seeking meaningful employment

The meatless meal was
really professional & 
serious, a combination 
of heuristic procedures,
anything but boring. The

dislike was the algorithm  

it produced, a nested 

while-loop which included 
three inner loops, crispy on 
the outside, soggy within.

Tax credit for home buyers

We’re always getting lack-
luster troubadours. What I
want is an offensive magician
who can, by exploiting
luminescence spectroscopy,
turn late afternoon tea &
scone parties into a world
tour by Gogol Bordello.

A Mammoth Task

Obsessed as they are

about big hats &

big heads, most

consumers have a

difficult time over-

coming their reluctance

to stop the world from

moving into warmer

climatic conditions. They

want to know how

much it would cost, &

would they get a Dog

Bone Charm or other

keepsake if they

ordered now. By the

halfway answering

point their interest has

shifted anyway to what

funk-punk-thrash-ska

shows are coming up

& would the discovery

of ancient elephant

skeletons randomize

women as well as men.

They conveniently forget

that each one of us, in our

place & time, is in balance

with everything else &

we don’t need to do any-

thing alone any more. That’s

why they consider it

inappropriate to speak ill

of the dead, & why today

feels like a milkshake day.

KARST ON A SISTER HEAD

Karst on the head of a sister

Like a denudated surface of a home

Silence sings her name in a flying universe

She’s still a crawling baby with a portraits  

of a cracked verse on her palms

She’s  a sister in a carved star breathing 

fire 

When the stars reborn  she will be a 

diamond  castle of a new dawn.

               WISHES WERE DEAD SONGS

    I wish darkness was never a  dead song 

                           Of night….

    I wish it has never painted my mothers 

                tongue like a city of grief….

    I wish it was never a colour  and symphony 

                           of the dead…..

    I wish darkness turns white like paradise

                           on earth…..

    I wish it never swallows a brother in

                         his new world…..

Rahmat A. Muhammad is a poet from northern Nigeria.

The Best Poem

The most efficient way to write a poem

Is to find another poem and take out the heart.

Leave the other poem where you found it bleeding out.

If it were efficient it would have survived 

like the catfish deserting a sinking ship.

After it has sunk, they crawl about the bottom

chewing on the rats and the hands

that didn’t get out.

That is natural selection.

 

 The best poems are the poems that are here.

They persevere through merit.

They go to Burning Man to find more truth.

Shelley has built a Byronic hedge fund

of virtue and innovation.

It stands naked and peeing in the night of wisdom.

And where its urine spatters test scores rise

like manly locks shaking in the storm of cost benefit analysis.

 

 This is the poem that ate your heart.

This is the poem whose heart was eaten.

We need less blood and more Human Resources 

if we are to go into the dark of genius

and emerge with the light of anthology.

The Heart

Heart.
Because of you, misfortunes have no end,
Where you are, danger lies close or distant.
Cast away deceit, turn back and repent,
For on Judgment Day, there will be questions to answer.

I envy those without a heart,
They don’t burn, don’t love, and don’t even die.
How can they? For they have no heart.
But me? I have a thousand hearts…
Yet still, something feels incomplete.

Some have hearts, but they’re lifeless, dead,
Even if torn apart, no blood would be shed.
Inside them, parasites hum their tune,
Even a dog wouldn’t eat what’s thrown to it soon.

Are there such people in life, I wonder?
Yes. Don’t you see? Look closer, further.
Those who sell conscience and homeland for gold,
With no compassion, their hearts are cold.

The heart — a delicate, unique creation,
It cannot be left unguarded, not for a moment.
Close your eyes briefly, and it might be led astray,
Even by desires for the unworthy in the fray.

Shoxijahon Urunov — student of Bukhara State Pedagogical Institute

ON THE OPEN EYELASHES SHADOW I WEAVE

Fire flies into the blood go of a distant time.

Your words lying at my thoughts top I hear

It’s you to cover me making me dawn

.

More than the sword , sinks the emotion

In the boiling blood more than the must  

Less raw than the life blood

But if you caress me like a daisy

investigating petal by petal  

his yellow ochre heart to be reached

staring me in the lilac tattoo of the violet  

I still undo my shadow dress

come into me, don’t disappoint the wait

.

IF YOU’RE POETRY

My secret lover

Reach me in breeze or fire

In calm never

Let love be between torment and ecstasy  

Let it be hug between waiting and arrival

What a sweeter embrace

than in hope,  

never again hoped

my love?

At the fountain

of that ethereal shadow

there lies the heavy weight

of the universe:

we are human light

in the thunderbolt of blood,

spastic movements of pawns

in the dismal suffering

of this ”humanism”

for we can never know

the age of the soul

ours, or anybody’s.

And time seconds us

in space that polishes us

shavings of illusions.

I shall not escape my punishment:

well do I know

the mine of the blade

and I shall struggle to live

where all is ruination.  

Maria Teresa Liuzzo was born in Saline di Montebello Jonico and lives in Reggio di Calabria (Italy). President of the Lyric-Dramatic Association ”P. Benintende” – Journalist – Publisher. Chief Editor of the literary magazine ”LE MUSE” – Essayist – Lyricist – Literary and art critic – Director of Public Relations – Translator – Opinionist – Writer – Doctor of Psychology – Leibniz University Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. – Professor of Philosophy and Modern Literature – USA. – Correspondent of ”IL PONTE ITALO – AMERICANO” – USA – ”NUOVA CORVINA” EUROPA – (Hunedoara) – Collaborator of ”ALB-SPIRIT” TIRANA (ALBANIA), ”Gazzetta Nazionale” (Tirana). ”Perqasje” (Tirana); ”Gazeta Destinacioni” (Valona – Albania); ”Dritare” and ”Albania Press” (based in Rome); ”Atunis” (Belgium – Brussels); Alessandria Today (Italy); ”EZGULIK” – Bukhara (UZBEKISTAN) dir. Obid KOLDOSH.

Maria Miraglia is a poet, essayist, translator, and peace activist. Her commitment to human rights and peace activism is evident in her long-standing memberships in Amnesty International, Ican, and the International Observatory for Human Rights. She is Vice President of the World Movement for the Defense of Children) – Kenya and the founder of the World Peace Foundation.

Dr. Miraglia’s influence on contemporary literature is significant. As a cosmopolitan Italian writer, her academic curriculum is impressive, placing her among the stars of the literary world. She is a founding member and Literary Director of the Pablo Neruda Association and a member of several editorial boards of international literary magazines;

Member of the International Writers Association; Member of the International Academy Mihai Eminescu; Honorary Member of United Nations of Letters; Poet Laureate 2018, WNWU; and World Poet Laureate and Golden Medal 2020 – Xi’an, China;
Miraglia writes in Italian, English, or both languages. Her poems have been translated into over thirty languages and are prominent in over one hundred anthologies worldwide.

Miraglia is a writer with considerable skills. She has an exquisite imagination; her style is lucid, transparent in thought, philosophical and meaningful in substance. She can skillfully intertwine emotions and creativity, philosophy, logic and reason, giving her poems an air of new beauty. She expresses her broad humanity, magnanimity, aesthetic abilities, delicate sensitivity and concern for global peace and harmony. Her originality makes her a truly brilliant writer.

Dr Miraglia Maria Antonietta
Literary Director of P. Neruda
Founder President of WFP.
Member of the European Academy of Science and Arts- Salzburg

………

Interview conducted by

Eva Petropoulou Lianou 

Please share your thoughts about the future of literature.

Literature has always held fundamental importance in developing societies, and it seems right to recognise poetry’s merit as the first means of spreading knowledge when writing did not yet exist. With the advent of printing, access to culture became more manageable, but even today, masses of individuals are not granted this privilege. Culture is the only tool that can facilitate social mobility, improve economic conditions, and provide a better quality of life. However, in many areas of the world, young people are not even given access to basic education. This is especially true for women, who remain subjected to a slavery that is not only economic but also intellectual, depriving them of individual choices.

The Good and the Bad. Who is winning nowadays?

I was born in a Catholic country where the belief in an individual’s struggle between good and evil has always been present. Beyond Catholic thought, historical facts tell us of a world in which struggles have prevailed, a world in which wars have continually devastated entire countries and created tears and death. And even today, the media inundates us with news of the same type that sometimes makes hope difficult. This does not mean that we should give up, on the contrary, we should increasingly commit our forces so that men can live in harmony so that the idea of justice does not remain in the pages of the codes, and there is a better distribution of wealth.

For this to happen, everyone must be allowed compulsory education without gender distinction. Only knowledge can help people make better choices in every social sector. I want to address a cry for help to intellectuals so that they become champions of a rebirth of consciences. It is easy to make the responsibility of conducting public welfare fall on the people in power. We must also ask ourselves who put them in that position and why. The masses have tremendous power that they may not realize.

How many books have you written, and when can we find your books?

Twenty-one of my poetry anthologies have been published, mainly in Italian and English but also in Arabic, Telugu, Hindi, and many other languages. I have enjoyed translating some of the most appreciated contemporary authors. My poems are also in over one hundred anthologies in various Italian and international magazines and have been translated into over thirty languages.

My books can be found on Amazon.

The book. E-book or hard book. What will be the future? 

I wish for any form of diffusion of books, even though I prefer the paper form. I can read and reread a text, mark it, and consider it a personal object to take and take again over time.

A Wish for 2025

I am a woman of peace. Some international organisations have kindly wanted to give me the honour of being an ambassador of peace. It is in this role that last year I presented, together with a group of various authors, in the council hall of the municipalities of Assisi, a city universally recognised as a centre of peace, the book “Give Me Peace – Anicia Editore.” Peace and harmony between peoples require education in welcoming and accepting diversity, yet schools in all countries forget education in goodness and beauty. Young people are induced to compete, not collaborate, which is one of the attitudes we should work on.

A phrase from your book

…………..

women and men on earth  

in holy silence

for the massacre and horror

could sense the fear

of the little martyrs

of the human foolishness

hear their cries

imaging the violated bodies

the tears of their mothers

their eternal mourning

From Martyrs of Human Foolishness  – Coloured Butterflies