sponsors the 98th ANNUAL SPRING CONTEST (formerly Poets’ Dinner) Open to All Poets Entry Fee: $20
Awards Announcements During Program ON ZOOM Saturday, June 7, 2025, 1 pm to 4 pm Must Attend on Zoom to be Eligible for Awards THEME: INFINITY GUEST SPEAKER: to be determined
Poems must be original, in English, not have appeared online or in any journal or newspaper professionally published and not be previous cash prizewinners (Honorable Mentions OK). Winning poems may be included in a future anthology. 42-line maximum (not including spaces), any form or style. Up to four entries (4) per person; one (1) per category
DEADLINE: April 1, 2025 (POSTMARKED BEFORE MIDNIGHT; NO CERTIFIED OR REGISTERED MAIL)
Type entry on ONE side only of 8 1⁄2 x 11 white paper.
Type category in upper right-hand corner of each page.
DO NOT put your name or any identification ANYWHERE on any entered poem.
Send three (3) clear copies of EACH entry (with no illustrations).
Include a separate page with the following information (typed or legible): Name, Address, Tel no., Email, Title and Category of each poem.
Entry fee of $20 (check) made out to INA COOLBRITH CIRCLE.
AUTHOR MUST ATTEND ON ZOOM TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR AN AWARD. ENTRIES accompanied by ENTRY FEE should be mailed to: Contest Chair Aline Soules, 48 Danville Oak Pl, Danville, CA 94526. Questions? Please contact Aline Soules at soulesa@yahoo.com PRIZES: One POETS’ DINNER GRAND PRIZE: $100 — To be chosen from among the first three prize winners in each category. For each CATEGORY: Three Prizes — $50, $30, $20, plus three Honorable Mentions. Last Year’s Grand Prize Poem, Hermit Thrush, will be read by the author, Deborah Bachels Schmidt
AWARDS PROCEDURE: Winning entries will be announced ONLY on Saturday, June 7 and checked against the master list. If there is NO CLAIM, the prize will go to the next ranked submission. Judges’ decisions are final.
NOTE: The Ina Coolbrith Circle invites all those interested in poetry to its September 20th meeting on Zoom where winners are invited to read their winning poems.
Synchronized Chaos Magazine expresses our sorrow for the lives and property lost in the Los Angeles wildfires. We invite people to visit here to learn about how to send cards of encouragement to fire crews and to donate books to replace school library collections that have burned.
In March we will have a presence at the Association of Writing Programs conference in L.A. which will include an offsite reading at Chevalier’s Books on Friday, March 28th at 6pm. All are welcome to attend!
Contributor Eva Petropoulou Lianou shares the Caesurae Collective Society’s call for submissions of poetry about consciousness.
The anthology seeks to weave a fabric of poetic expressions that resonate with the theme of consciousness—exploring the mind, the self, and the infinite cosmos—weaving together poetic voices that reflect on what it means to be aware, alive, and interconnected. Submissions due February 10th, 2025,information here.
Also, World Wide Writer Web invites submissions of short stories for their annual contest. Information here.
Finally, contributor Chimezie Ihekuna seeks a publisherfor his children’s story collection Family Time. Family Time! Is a series that is aimed at educating, entertaining and inspiring children between the ages of two and seven years of age. It is intended to engage parents, teachers and children with stories that bring a healthy learning relationship among them.
This issue explores how we see and interpret our world through pieces that draw our attention to various focal points and take a closeup or wider angle view.
Some people zoom in on a particular place or image, using that as a meditation to begin deeper thoughts.
Sayani Mukherjee evokes an island’s lost grandeur through describing historical ruins while acknowledging the destination’s current reality. Student group 2123, from Uzbekistan, contributes a group reflection on their trip to Samarkand.
Dario creates a musical combination inspired by the complex culture of New Orleans. Kylian Cubilla Gomez’ photography focuses in on bits of play and whimsy in toys and in daily life.
Precious Moses draws on the West African iroko tree as a symbol of maturity and strength in hard times. Rahmat A. Muhammad expresses hope through the birth of a young sister in a world touched by darkness and pain.
Mashhura Usmonova expresses gratitude for her teacher and for education, which has allowed her to write as a container for her emotions.
Dr. Jernail Singh offers thoughts on poetry: how he appreciates cohesion and meaning as well as pretty language. Noah Berlatsky gives a dramatic take on the excision needed for the creative process. Daniel De Culla offers up a satirical and humorous take on writing generated through artificial intelligence as Texas Fontanella blasts the firehose of words and letters in our general direction. Jerome Berglund and Shane Coppage’s collaborative haiku include humor and clever twists of phrase.
Jacques Fleury poetizes about how knowing vital history can protect you from being erased by others’ fear or hatred.
Maria Miraglia, as interviewed by Eva Petropoulou Lianou, speaks to the importance of literacy and education in world peacemaking efforts.
Loki Nounou calls out a culture of sexism in which violating women’s rights and their bodies becomes normalized. Narzulloyeva Munisa Bakhromovna highlights the critical need to stamp out global corruption.
Mahbub Alam laments the killing in Gaza and hopes that everyone who dies makes it into a better place. Graciela Noemi Villaverde also mourns the destruction in Gaza, personifying the land and culture into a living being to highlight its pain and beauty. Lidia Popa speaks directly to the heart and conscience of the world in her call for peace in Gaza. Maja Milojkovic revels in the beauty of peace, for Gaza and everywhere. Wazed Abdullah honors the quiet and dignified resilience of Gazans as Don Bormon affirms that the place will recover and heal.
Laurette Tanner charts and maps her journeys, hoping this wisdom will carry over into developing ways to lessen the suffering of the homeless.
Shoxijahon Urunov inspires us to protect the tenderness of our hearts. Nilufar Anvarova’s piece encourages us to follow our hearts and show kindness to each other. Eva Petropoulou Lianou expresses her human vulnerability and desire for understanding and healing. Mesfakus Salahin’s poem speaks to love but also to mystery: how complex we all are and whether we can truly know another.
Stephen Jarrell Williams crafts haiku vignettes on the search for bits of hope and connection in a large modern cityscape.
Mashhura Usmonova expresses gratitude for her teacher and for education, which has allowed her writing as a container for her emotions. Raxmonova Durdona offers up a tender tribute for a caring and deceased uncle.
Maria Teresa Liuzzo’s poetry illuminates deep feeling: passionate love and the inevitability of human suffering. Mykyta Ryzhykh digs deep for meaning in a world littered with death as Orzigul Sherova urges readers to make the best use of their limited time. Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa also encourages making the most of life, holding onto faith and hope in a confusing world.
Scott C. Holstad explores themes of disillusionment, introspection, and the search for love and meaning in life. Tagrid Bou Merhi’s elegant words wander through a quest for identity and meaning in a seemingly empty world. In a semicomic short story, Bill Tope fears losing memory and mental capacity. J.J. Campbell writes of numbness, aging, and loss. He connects with others, but even these interactions are tinged with sadness, longing, and thoughts of mortality.
Audrija Paul tells the story of a heart broken when a person reads more into a relationship than is there. Taylor Dibbert describes a relationship that ended as impulsively as it began. Z.I. Mahmud explores generational family dysfunction in his essay on Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts.
Chris Butler’s short poems probe themes of identity and love and our relationships to nature and technology.
Alex S. Johnson proffers a mythic tale where a hero foils the unholy plots of power-hungry gods and wild natural forces.
Rustamova Muqaddas relates twists of fate on a hiking trip, the uneasy balance of humans and wild nature.
Joseph Ogbonna writes of the majestic richness of the Himalayas as Gadoyboyeva Gulsanam describes the power and transience of a rainstorm. Ilhomova Mohichehra conveys the joy of children playing outside on a snowy day. John Brantingham’s short story shows a couple re-evaluating how much they have in common while watching muskrats go about their business.
Mark Young’s surreal poetry touches on climate change, politics, nature, and job hunting, as Su Yun’s work explores time, nature, identity, and memory.
Duane Vorhees’ work addresses life, death, and the physical and sensual aspects of our existence with wit and humor. Marjona Jo’rayeva Baxtiyorovna offers blessings for weddings as Nate Mancuso’s tough and ironic gangster tale takes place in the world of calm seniors and pickleball. Alan Catlin presents sets of poems in three parts, each looking at aspects of aging, nature, and art.
Tom McDade braids vignettes and images from life together with artworks from different eras. Peter Cherches’ vignettes present character sketches of people on journeys, literal or emotional.
Reading this issue is a journey of its own, and we invite you to savor these contributions.
Touch
A mahogany of lost leaden high
The namesake kept its promise
The turbulence of sea horse runner
The silver disk is a little low tonight
For Baroque's touch of medias res
The high strung of novelty
The joyous currents of sea beds
Leaves me open stranded
In an Island of Mediterranean blue
I sing and hum the national green
The olive touch of Texas to Britain
Ghettos land in the islands of poverty
I skimmed a solistic touch.
“If you love life, don’t waste your time, because time creates life,” said one of the philosophers. The most valuable thing in this world for a person is time. Time is the amount of time we have the energy to do any work or activity. A person who knows how to take advantage of this opportunity is a person who is able to use his time effectively. Because it cannot be stopped or reversed. A baby born just yesterday will go to kindergarten tomorrow, then to school, then to study and, you see, he will start an independent life. In the meantime, he doesn’t even notice that time has flown by. Time doesn’t wait for anyone, or you can’t worry about tomorrow. It should be considered and managed as luck. Only then a person will not feel sorry for the past time and life. A person who knows the value of time has the right to be great.
Time is like a great luck. It is necessary not to lose this luck, but to make good use of it. After all, a person comes to this world only once, and no one but Allah knows how much life and how much time there is in it. Neither his parents, nor doctors, nor others. Every moment can be the last for a person. Therefore, it is necessary to value time, use it wisely and manage it without wasting it.
So how do we manage time? Isn’t it a controlled object?
That’s right, time is not a controlled thing, it’s not even a thing. But time is managed, how do you say? We have often heard expressions like time allocation, time planning, and time sharing. Why do we use these expressions if time is not controlled?
We are always
– tomorrow I will do that work, today I will go to this place, and now I will do these lessons – we manage our time, that is, we allocate it to our important work. With this, we will make good use of our time. We will manage it properly.
But what if it’s the other way around? What if we can’t share it? Or what if we spend it only planning and not actually doing anything?
Then we will be defeated, that is, time will control us, not us. We are wasting our precious time given to us by God. As a result, we cannot leave a good name or good memories in this world. Instead of regretting wasting our time tomorrow, we should learn to plan, allocate, and manage it right now. We should appreciate time when we have time, not when we don’t have time. After all, time is a priceless blessing. Therefore, every person should make good use of the time given to him, he should never stop learning and learning a craft. We can earn back the money we spent, but we can’t get back the time we lost. Let’s appreciate God by thanking him for every breath and every day. Because this time is a deposit for all of us!
May your life be filled with light, May your dreams come true. On your most beautiful and joyful day, May your weddings be blessed.
May the groom have honor and devotion, May the bride have a beautiful smile. May no one cast an evil eye on your happiness, May your weddings be blessed!
Today, relatives and friends gather, May your faces always be bright. May everyone envy you, May your weddings be blessed!
