“Multiply. Be fruitful.” And God gave man a tool. But Eve, she conceived and brought forth the slide rule. Before ever we knew what old Galle saw, we arranged us our love life by Bode’s own law. It really did pain us to get past Uranus and let Neptune discover us our flaw.
A sexy realtor from Nice quoted me her terms for a piece. When I found out her price I told her, “Au regretment, no dice.” (I wasn’t looking to buy, just lease.) I met a pedantic old whore from Bombay who quibbled over being labeled that way. She said, “While it’s true I get paid by the screw, I work in Mumbai not Bombay.” Dish washers from Amarillo had pubes the texture of Brillo. Though they made quite a scene, she got the plates really clean and gave the waiter a thrill. Oh! Smilingly, Sue said over minces, “The feeling of packing ten inches must be like squeezing your feet into a pair of cute shoes that don’t fit — so tight that it pinches!” Said I, “Oh, size tens! Rather a bore if compared to my wee four.” Sue smiled (no pleasure in it, till she learned I’m measuring it “from the tip” I told her “to the floor”). A prison scholar was subtly candid as his fellows he Homerically branded; one boomerang con he dubbed Rosy-fingered Don ’cause he was caught so often red-handed. A persistent narcissist from Tacoma would diddle himself into comas. Though warned he’d go blind, he had it in mind to stop when he got to glaucoma. One disgruntled lover of Venus rubbed down to a nubbin his penis. The goddess said, “Friend! We’ve come to the end of the source of the friction between us.”
KINGSTON
8 DAYS! 7 NIGHTS!
Son, dey
moan
day to day
when dey
thirsty.
Fried, dey
sat ern de sun.
Deh!
FISHERS AT HOME
you’re
the sinker,
and you’re
the bobber,
and I’m the other, the provider of the worm and the
Mykyta Ryzhykh’s new collection tombboy depicts what Margaret Atwood pointed out in her famous quote, “War is what happens when language fails.”
Through repeated phrases, inverted words, special characters, checklists and tables, and italicized product specifications, Ryzhykh breaks language and meaning. He creates a mood of absurdity and confusion where we feel lost, without landscapes or place names or titles or even recognizable syntax to orient us. Like ee cummings, Ryzhykh eschews capitalization, but rather than representing a bold individual artistic statement, the choice reinforces the low status of nameless humans in this barren world.
Death and loss recur as motifs in tombboy, through the title poem and several others that mention cemeteries, sandcastles disappearing at high tide, checkmate at the end of a chess game, a coffin embedded in a birthday cake, bees separated from their hives. One piece consists almost entirely of blacked out text, illustrating the loss of the poem’s meaning as well as its narrator, and another is merely a blank page. Another describes a bird purely in the negative, listing everything the animal lacks, and wondering aloud how it will fly.
Most of the poems focus just on conveying the feeling of dislocation and disorientation without speculating on its causes. However, near the beginning, a few pieces suggest that violence of various sorts has ruptured the world. One piece references “bombs tears grenades grenades of tears” and a destroyed house, and another poem mentions a suicide. The poetic subjects are universalized: the description in the line following the first reference to ‘tombboy’ suggests he/she could be male or female. People have lost much of their individual humanity here and become an anonymous, alienated mass.
The collection ends on what is perhaps a note of kindness, although as tenuous and fragile as the world of this book. Poem #46 serves as a kind of lullaby to a child not yet born, with a repeated chorus urging them to sleep. We see the first glimmer of tenderness and hope in this poem, as the unborn will have ‘the strength of the stones we once were” and the speaker begs them to “kill me with your love.”
Although the object of the poem is mortal: “posthumous ants will eat you” and will come into a tenuous world “where they may be crippled for life,” they “were once fish/we should become birds.” They, like us, belong here, and despite war, violence, and the breakdown in human language and connection, still have a place in our broken world’s long history.
From the series Creating the Image of the Human of the Future in Literature
Friends! I invite all of us, following the outstanding Egyptian writer Ashraf Abu al-Yazid, to take a friendly literary journey through the works of some of our colleagues, poets and writers, in order, through this small study, to try to understand how the image of the future arises from the fabric of the literary process both for an individual person and for the entire human civilization. Let’s start with Ashraf himself…
Ashraf Abu al-Yazid, Egypt
Reviews and comments about the literary travels of Ashraf Dali were left by dozens of respected poets and writers, including such big names as Ko Eun, Cao Shui, Olga Medvedko, Anna Stelia, Mariela Cordero, Ismail Diadier Haidara, Keshab Sigdel, Taghrid BouMerhi… The new book about the literary traveler Ashraf brings together dozens of literary and intellectual voices from the Arab world, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America, forming a rich human and creative panorama around the author of The Silk Road, A Street in Cairo and Shamus.
For some, he is primarily a poet; for others it is a traveler, translator, journalist or cultural ambassador. Yet all participants agree on one important truth: he is the architect of a cultural project that transcends national boundaries and embraces a broader human horizon. Readers of The Literary Traveler come to the clear conclusion that the book is much more than just a tribute to an individual. This is documentary evidence of the extensive network of friendships and cultural connections that Ashraf Abul-Yazid built over decades of work and creativity. This is a book that tells through the writer’s travels the power of literature to build bridges between peoples, and the ability of the written word to cross continents, like real travelers.
Shirani Rajapakse, Sri Lanka
smart
Sri Lankan poet Shirani Rajapakse’s literary landscape unfolds at the intersection of human rights, social justice, and the aftermath of conflict. Her narratives trace the subtle threads of migration and cultural identity, weaving the nuances of women’s experience and the broader human condition into the cosmic cycle of samsara through a deep Buddhist lens.
Refusing to be limited by geographic boundaries, Rajapakse’s pen bridges the local and the global, examining contemporary crises that resonate around the world. Her work is marked by a fierce commitment to correcting systemic imbalances, examining the sociocultural forces that shape women’s identities, and depicting the psychological scars of war.
Eden Soriano Trinidad, Philippines
Eden Soriano Trinidad is a Filipino poet, writer, editor, translator and passionate advocate of peace, cultural harmony and humanitarian values. Widely known for her lyrical depth and unwavering commitment to unity across caste, creed and racial lines, she has become a distinctive voice in contemporary world literature. Her poetry celebrates love, reconciliation and the common humanity that unites us. Through her words and actions, Queen Eden—as she is affectionately known in literary circles—continues to build bridges between cultures and inspire hearts around the world. Her poetry is not just art; it is a call for compassion, dialogue and lasting peace.
Eldar Akhadov, Azerbaijan / Russia
Eldar Akhadov is an explorer with the soul of a poet, who created many essays, stories, fairy tales and poems: North and South, cold and warmth, reality and myth, experience and memory – all these opposites in his works do not oppose each other, but form a single coordinate system. A person in this world is not just an observer, but a connecting link between various dimensions of existence. The value and power of Akhadov’s work lies in the fact that it not only describes life, but also helps the reader understand it. At the same time, according to the critic Alexander Karpenko, “The joy of life dominates the works of Eldar Akhadov. In his work, he returns the fragmented world to a state of original unity.”
Adel Khozam, UAE
Adel Khozam is a prominent poet and media personality from the United Arab Emirates. known for its innovative high-level international initiatives. Among them is Mansira, a cosmic poetic epic co-written by 86 poets from around the world. Khozam belongs to the modernist generation in the UAE, having played a seminal role in the development of Arabic prose poetry with a group of poets in the early 1980s. His creative legacy includes books covering not only poetry, but also philosophical works, novels, studies and translations. His significant contribution to increasing the global importance of poetry should be noted. In the Arab literary community, his work is recognized as one of the most innovative and profound among all Arab poetry of the first quarter of the 21st century.
Ayo Ayoola-Amale, Nigeria
Ayo Ayoola-Amale – multiple award winner, Nigerian
Ayo is a poet, artist, storyteller, and peacemaker whose work combines profound emotional honesty with figurative illustrations, creating a new language of liberation.
The founder of the poetry foundation Splendors of Dawn and the initiator of the global exhibition The Canvas for Peace, Ayo harnesses the power of imagination to deconstruct the systemic. She is also the creator of the acclaimed children’s series Every Child, which promotes the power of storytelling as a source of inspiration for future generations. Grounded in principles of inclusivity and compassion, Ayo’s literary and performance work seeks to transcend self-expression, actively amplifying the voices of marginalized groups and transforming social tensions into profound human connection.
Luis Carlos Prestes Jr., Brazil
Composer, film director, lyricist, journalist, writer, poet, actor, illustrator, and expert on cultural and economic development issues, Luis Carlos Prestes Jr. is the author of numerous literary and poetic works, including “The Heroic Trilogy.”
This book is utterly Brazilian in every sense of the word! It is a fusion of prose, poetry, philosophy, songs, music, graphics, and photographs that you can gaze upon and see a living, moving, carnival-lit, ocean-scented being called Rio de Janeiro! This book is a veritable carnival of folk heroic stories, a book imbued with metaphysics and the incredible reality of place and time. The work of Luis Carlos Prestes Jr. is simultaneously beautiful and dangerous, like love at first sight, in the sense that once you fall in love with these rhythms and lines, it is impossible to unlove them.
Nia Amira Osman (Kurnia Suprihatin), Indonesia
The value of her work is defined not only by its undoubted artistic merits, but also by the qualities that make it undeniably unique and relevant in our challenging times of change and upheaval!
The poet’s lines are imbued with a grateful, reverent, and profound love for all life on earth. Nia travels extensively and knows firsthand the lands and countries she writes about. Invisible threads of spiritual kinship connect people on Earth, and this is clearly felt by everyone who has encountered Nia’s works, presented simultaneously in several languages! Stories from around the world are intertwined in Nia Amira Osman’s lines, glowing with the light of love! Her poems are filled not only with joy, but also with deep compassion and sadness… “From Indonesia with Love…” is a great book about Amira Osman’s love, which cannot belong to one person, because it belongs to the whole world. And the whole world belongs to her!
Margarita Al, Russia
Margarita Al’s postfuturistic cosmopoetics is directed toward the ontological and spiritual space of the future. According to the thinker and poet Konstantin Aleksandrovich Kedrov, her work is “poetic words awakened to life, thinking matter woven from light, time, and memory…”
Margarita Al’s vertical eight-step ladder—from phantasmagoria to synergy (Phantasmagoria, Frustration, Demassification, Discordia, Metamorphoses, Agape, Epiphany, Synergy)—is the ascent of the word through the states of being. The poet here is not an observer, but an operator of space. He is a discoverer, for whom consciousness is the microscope, and existence itself is the object of study. How can one retain the eternal in the finite? How can one enter infinity without losing oneself? There is only one answer: only through poetry. Language becomes an organ of memory and an organ of insight. Margarita Al is a rare poet. She cannot be compared. This is a vision, an insight, an art of living in the tension between eternity and the moment, between inhalation and exhalation.
Thought disintegrates to the state of a primordial particle, a primordial atom, and then—before the reader’s eyes—reassembles. This is not an image, but a vision, a form of vision dreamed of by the visionaries of the Silver Age. Margarita Al was predicted in many of the Futurists’ theoretical works. They were not allowed to bring this poetry to its culmination. But the 21st century has picked up their voice. And now it resonates… at a frequency where poetry becomes the only language of immortality.”
Summarizing our short literary journey, we can say:
– about the power of literature to build bridges between peoples, and the ability of the written word to cross continents like true travelers;
– about poetry’s ability to trace the subtle threads of migration and cultural identity between people’s feelings and thoughts; – that poetry is not just art, but also a call for compassion, dialogue, and lasting peace;
– that humans in this world are not just observers, but a link between different dimensions of existence; and that creativity can influence the return of the fragmented world to its original state of harmony and unity;
– the global significance of poetry and the literary word in general for the future of civilization;
– the power of contemporary narratives as sources of inspiration for future generations;
– that literary creativity can be at once permeated with metaphysics and the incredible reality of the places and times described;
– that great literature cannot belong to one person, for it belongs to the whole world;
– that poetry is becoming the only language of immortality.–
THE MOTIF OF METAMORPHOSIS IN MODERNIST LITERATURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE WORKS OF FRANZ KAFKA AND NAZAR ESHONQUL
Orifjonova Imrona Ulugbek qizi Second-year student, Department of Uzbek Language and Literature, Faculty of Philology, Andijan State University
Abstract
This thesis presents a comparative-typological analysis of the motif of metamorphosis in the works of Franz Kafka, one of the most prominent representatives of world modernist literature, and Nazar Eshonqul, a leading figure of Uzbek modernism. Based on Kafka’s The Metamorphosis and Nazar Eshonqul’s stories Bahovuddin’s Dog and The Invasion, the study examines the issues of spiritual and physical degradation, alienation from society, and existential crisis. The philosophical and aesthetic foundations of the protagonists’ transformations, as well as their ideological similarities and national-artistic peculiarities, are identified and analyzed.
Keywords: modernism, metamorphosis, Franz Kafka, Nazar Eshonqul, alienation, existential crisis, absurdity, mythological thinking, spiritual decline, national memory.
Introduction
In modernist literature, the motif of metamorphosis serves as one of the most powerful artistic and philosophical means of portraying the tragedy of the individual and their alienation from society and from their own self. In Uzbek literature, the writer who successfully synthesized this Western modernist tradition with national realities, historical tragedies, and Eastern philosophy is undoubtedly Nazar Eshonqul. A comparison of his stories The Invasion and Bahovuddin’s Dog with Kafka’s The Metamorphosis reveals both common and distinctive aspects of the two authors’ artistic concepts.
Main Part and Comparative Analysis
In Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, the protagonist Gregor Samsa transforms into an insect unexpectedly and abruptly. The event is presented primarily as a physical transformation. The author confronts the reader with a fact that has already occurred and depicts this absurd situation through highly realistic details: “One morning, when Gregor Samsa woke from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect.”
Gregor Samsa’s transformation symbolizes his reduction from a productive member of society and provider for his family into a useless creature. Initially shocked by his condition, his parents and sister gradually begin to feel disgust and hatred toward him. Gregor’s insect-like weakness further intensifies his isolation. Through metamorphosis, Kafka demonstrates how an individual who undergoes change can be forgotten and rejected by even the closest family members, treated as something repulsive and ultimately discarded. In the story, metamorphosis appears almost as an inevitable and natural occurrence.
Unlike Kafka’s works, the process of metamorphosis in Nazar Eshonqul’s stories does not occur suddenly. While Gregor Samsa awakens one morning as an insect, Eshonqul’s protagonists gradually distance themselves from their identity, national memory, and spiritual roots. Here, transformation represents the inevitable outcome of moral decline, either consciously chosen by the individual or accepted under societal pressure. Whereas Kafka reveals the inner state through an external physical transformation, Eshonqul portrays the gradual destruction of the inner self, which eventually leads the character to spiritual and psychological disability—that is, the loss of human identity.
In The Invasion, the protagonist lives in constant fear after his homeland is occupied by invaders. He continuously hides from the enemy. Eventually, when the invaders track him down, he takes refuge in a ruined courtyard. When they enter in pursuit of him, they find not a human being but a small lamb. The metamorphosis in this story possesses a national and social character. The protagonist’s transformation into a lamb symbolizes the complete loss of agency, courage, and love of freedom under colonial oppression, totalitarian rule, and systematic fear. Reduced to the level of a submissive domestic animal, he embodies the tragic psychological destruction of the individual. Unlike Kafka’s biologically inexplicable transformation, Eshonqul’s metamorphosis reflects the devastating effects of social and political pressure on the human psyche.
In the works of both writers, metamorphosis is interpreted as a tragic consequence of the conflict between the individual and society. However, while Kafka explores this process through the lens of absurdism and existential philosophy, focusing on the fate of an individual, Nazar Eshonqul associates it with national history, spiritual crisis, and Eastern thought, including Sufi symbolism and the concept of divine punishment. Therefore, the motif of metamorphosis in Eshonqul’s works can be regarded as a unique continuation and adaptation of Kafkaesque traditions within Uzbek modernist literature.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the motif of metamorphosis in the works of Franz Kafka and Nazar Eshonqul serves as an important artistic device for expressing alienation, spiritual degradation, and existential suffering. Comparative-typological analysis demonstrates that although both writers rely on the general principles of modernist thought, they enrich this motif with new meanings based on their own national and philosophical perspectives. As a result, metamorphosis emerges as a significant factor linking creative interaction and aesthetic development in both world and Uzbek modernist literature.
References
Kafka, F. The Metamorphosis (Stories and Novels). Tashkent: Yangi Asr Avlodi, 2018.
Eshonqul, N. Bahovuddin’s Dog: Stories, Novellas, and Essays. Tashkent: Sharq, 2012.
Eshonqul, N. The Invasion: Collection of Stories. Tashkent: Gafur Ghulom Publishing House, 2006.
Yo‘ldoshev, Q. The Burning Word. Tashkent: Yangi Asr Avlodi, 2006.
Quronov, D. Introduction to Literary Studies. Tashkent: Muallif, 2015.
Nina Hartley’s public life spans more than four decades, but the clarity with which she speaks about autonomy, consent, and the politics of the body suggests a through‑line that began long before her first appearance on camera. Born Marie Louise Hartman in 1959 in Berkeley, California, she grew up in a household shaped by political trauma and intellectual rigor. Her father, Louis Hartman, was a popular San Francisco radio announcer whose career was destroyed during the McCarthy era. As she recounts it, he would find work, settle in for a week or two, and then “some guys show up, and he would get fired.” The blacklisting left the family economically destabilized and left her father, once a public figure with a thriving career, working as a short‑order cook and eventually becoming a stay‑at‑home parent in the 1960s, long before such a role was culturally legible for men. “I grew up in the aftermath of the destruction,” she says, describing a childhood marked by her father’s depression and her mother’s long hours as the family’s primary breadwinner.
Her mother’s side carried its own political history. Hartley’s maternal grandfather was a civil‑rights activist in 1930s Alabama, appearing in major histories of the period such as Hammer and Hoe. She notes that he was “beaten up by goons and left for dead in a field,” and that one of those goons was a young Bull Connor, years before he became the infamous segregationist police commissioner of Birmingham. The family’s politics remained firmly leftist and activist; Hartley recalls being taken to anti‑war and civil‑rights marches in a stroller. Religion, however, was absent. “I was not raised in a religious household. No church, no temple, no religious instruction at all. From age eight I realized it was all a story.” This early secularism, combined with the family’s political history, shaped her lifelong skepticism toward moral authoritarianism and her insistence on bodily autonomy as a fundamental right.
Before entering adult film, Hartley pursued nursing, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from San Francisco State University and graduating magna cum laude in 1985. Her intention was to become a nurse‑midwife, influenced by the natural birth movement and by the somatic theories of Wilhelm Reich, whose concept of “body armor” resonated with her. “The birth industry in this country is deeply flawed,” she says, pointing to the United States’ comparatively high maternal and infant mortality rates among industrialized nations. Although she never practiced nursing professionally, the training shaped her understanding of the body as a site where trauma, repression, and liberation all manifest. “The body is stuck forever in the present moment. It cannot leave the present moment,” she explains. “Worry we feel in the body. Anger we feel in the body. Grief we feel in the body. Rage we feel in the body. And it can only be resolved in the body.” Her later work in adult film and sex education, far from being a departure from this somatic framework, became an extension of it. “Sex energy is just hyper‑charging the other physical modalities. When we help a person realign their relationship to pleasure… all their demons show up.”
Hartley entered adult entertainment in 1984 with Educating Nina, quickly becoming known not only for her performances but for her articulate advocacy of sexual freedom, sex‑positive feminism, and performer rights. By 2017 she had appeared in more than a thousand films, making her one of the most prolific figures in the industry. She also produced a series of instructional videos that became foundational texts for sex education outside traditional academic settings, and she lectured at universities including Dartmouth and multiple UC campuses. Her mainstream visibility increased with her role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights (1997), but her influence has always been rooted in her educational work and her political clarity.
When asked to define sexual autonomy, Hartley answers without hesitation. “Autonomy is being able and supported in making decisions about what happens to your own body. Do I have the right to my own body or not?” She connects this directly to contemporary politics, noting the consequences of recent legislative rollbacks. “The rollbacks for women’s physical autonomy are quite severe and far‑reaching. We’re already seeing increased deaths, increased infant death, permanent disability through botched obstetrical emergencies.” Her critique of religious influence on policy is equally direct. “I get that your religion tells you not to do these things. But how does your religion give you the right to tell me not to do those things?” She traces the current political climate back to the alliance between the religious right and Ronald Reagan. “Up until Reagan, the religious right stayed away from politics. Falwell and Reagan realized there was a sleeping giant. Forty‑five years later, here we are with Christian nationalists really working the agenda.” Yet she also sees a counter‑movement emerging. “What we do have on our side is the under‑40 exvangelicals — young people raised in that system who realized, ‘Oh hell no. Oh hell to the fuck no.’”
Hartley’s approach to consent is grounded in ethics, not aesthetics. She articulates the distinction between consensual kink and public imposition with characteristic precision. “Do I have the right to beat your ass? Yes. Do I have the right to do it in front of people who didn’t agree to be there? No, I don’t.” She continues, “Do I have the right to lead you around on a collar and a leash? Yes. Do I have the right to do it in public? No. I cannot involve other people in my scene who did not agree to be part of the scene.” On breath play, she draws one of her few absolute boundaries. “I do not do neck compressions. It’s not ‘choking.’ External pressure applied to the throat is strangulation. Strangulation is by nature super‑duper violent.” She adds, “As a dom, I get to not do things. A sub can beg and beg — you can hold your own breath. I am not restricting your airway.” Her reasoning is grounded in legal and ethical realism. “All you need is one dead person. ‘She said yes.’ Yeah — and now you’re going downtown to the station. It’s not a thing.”
Her understanding of sexuality is informed by evolutionary biology as much as by feminism. “Female sexual response was important — we have an organ that just does that,” she notes, referring to the clitoris. “We’ve been human for a lot longer than we’ve been monogamous or treating women as property.” Pleasure, in her view, is not frivolous but a bonding mechanism, a stress‑release system, and a tool for resilience. This perspective aligns with anthropological research on early human social structures, which suggests that cooperative child‑rearing, fluid kinship networks, and non‑monogamous sexual practices were common in pre‑agricultural societies.
Across her career, Hartley has served on the board of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, one of the leading organizations advocating for sexual freedom as a human right. She has been a consistent advocate for performer labor rights, medically accurate sex education, and the decriminalization of consensual adult sexual expression. Her public persona has remained remarkably consistent: articulate, informed, unapologetic, and grounded in the belief that bodies are not political abstractions but lived realities.
She summarizes her philosophy succinctly: “Autonomy is the right to eat what I want, fuck who I want, risk, control, terminate a pregnancy, carry a pregnancy — the basics.” And, as she adds, “Pleasure is an altered state of consciousness. Pleasure connects us.”
In a culture that remains deeply conflicted about sexuality, pleasure, and bodily autonomy, Hartley’s voice stands out not because it is provocative but because it is coherent. Her life — from a politically scarred Berkeley childhood to a pioneering career in adult film and sex education — forms a continuous argument for the centrality of bodily autonomy in any free society. She speaks not as a provocateur but as someone who has spent a lifetime thinking seriously about the body as a site of power, vulnerability, and possibility. Her work, in all its forms, returns to the same essential question: Do we have the right to our own bodies or not?
Alex S Johnson bio
Dubbed “the Baudelaire of our time” by cyberpunk godfather John Shirley, co‑screenwriter of The Crow (1994), Alex S. Johnson is an internationally published author whose work spans horror, surrealism, speculative fiction, and cross‑genre experimentation. His writing has been translated into Greek, Chinese, and Spanish, with his story “El Funeral del Mundo” (“World Funeral”) appearing in Microficciones y Cuentos, curated by Argentine editor Sergio Gaut vel Hartman. Other Microficciones-published authors include Cat Rambo (former SFWA President and Nebula Award winner), Paul Di Filippo (steampunk and slipstream pioneer), Lewis Shiner (World Fantasy Award winner, original cyberpunk figure), and Anna Taborska (multiple Bram Stoker award‑winning British horror writer and filmmaker).
Johnson’s collaborations include the New York Times bestseller Seeing Lessons with Tom Sullivan, the blind actor, author, and motivational speaker known for his appearances on WKRP in Cincinnati, Mork & Mindy, MASH*, Highway to Heaven, and in Airport ’77 with James Stewart. His work with Sullivan — and with Betty White, who supported Sullivan’s disability advocacy and collaborated with him on two other books— helped inspire the 2025 anthology Neurospicy!, featuring contributors such as Synchronized Chaos’s Cristina Deptula and acclaimed speculative fiction author Caitlín R. Kiernan, winner of the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards and praised by Clive Barker as “an original.” On his Substack The Smol Bear Review, Johnson recently published exclusive essay by Kiernan, “Finding Mr. Barker,” after the piece was orphaned in an authorization boondoggle with Clive Barker’s official channels. The remainder of the work will see publication in issues of Black Diadem magazine.
Johnson’s latest major release is Dreams of Fire and Steel 2: A Sword and Sorcery Anthology, continuing his commitment to independent, cross‑genre literary ecosystems. He lives with his family in Carmichael, California.
This hopeful green belongs uniquely to the spring earth
In summer, the earth wears a deep blue hat
The deep blue sea holds endless mysteries
This mysterious blue belongs uniquely to the summer earth
In autumn, the earth dons a golden fluffy coat
The golden fluff represents the harvest fields
This harvest gold belongs uniquely to the autumn earth
In winter, the earth wraps itself in a snow-white cape
The snow-white snow and withered trees form a poignant beauty
This poignant beauty belongs uniquely to the winter earth
2.无题
文/邹斯宇(小荷诗社，9岁)
大树伤心的时候
会落下一片叶子
但人类会觉得是一处美景
Untitled
By Zou Siyu (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 9 years old)
When a big tree is sad
It will drop a leaf
But humans will think it’s a beautiful scene
3.人生
文/雷雨晗(小荷诗社，10岁)
有些人的人生像苦瓜一样苦，
而有些人的人生像糖一样甜。
人生很苦的人想要人生变甜，
首先他得适应生活，
就像不喜欢吃苦瓜的人一样，
只要坚持下去他会变得很喜欢吃苦瓜，
那就代表坚持得了生话的各种苦。
所以，
一切都有可能。
Life
By Lei Yuhan (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 10 years old)
Some people’s lives are as bitter as bitter melons,
while others’ lives are as sweet as sugar.
Those who live a bitter life want their life to turn sweet.
First, they have to get used to life,
just like people who don’t like bitter melons—
as long as they persist, they will come to like bitter melons.
That means they can endure all kinds of hardships in life.
So,
everything is possible.
4.无题
文/张雨涵(小荷诗社，11岁)
老天这是怎么了
总是在流泪
让大地、河流都变成了汪洋
让大豆、棉花都在潜水
让鱼、虾都在遨游
农民苦不堪言
雨过天晴后
一切都恢复了平静
Untitled
By Zhang Yuhan (Xiaohe Poetry Club, 11 years old)
What’s wrong with the sky?
It keeps crying
Making the earth and rivers turn into a vast ocean
Making the soybeans and cotton seem to be diving
Making the fish and shrimp swim freely
The farmers are overwhelmed with suffering
After the rain stops and the sky clears
Everything returns to peace
5.花
文/胡裕乐(11岁)
她静静站在那儿
人来人往都夸她
美丽、清新
可我却说她不屈
你不信
那是你没有看见她
在淤泥里的挣扎
Flower
By Hu Yule (11 years old)
She stands there quietly
People come and go, praising her
For being beautiful, fresh
But I say she is unyielding
You don’t believe it
That’s because you haven’t seen
Her struggle in the mud
6.我不算谁的附庸
王韵瑶
也不是某段的支流河
比起这些
我更想成为一场顷刻间的滂沱
旷野间乍起的风波
又或是唐朝遗风外
悬着的唯一月色
人生本就是一首诗歌
而他们的文字浅薄
不该被潦草地印刷着
所以在我笔下
一重山有一重山的错落
我有我的平仄
I Am Not Anyone’s Appendage
By Wang Yunyao
I am not anyone’s appendage
Nor a tributary of some section
Compared to these
I’d rather be a sudden downpour
A gust of wind rising in the wilderness
Or the only moonlight hanging
Beyond the legacy of the Tang Dynasty’s style
Life is originally a poem
Yet their words are shallow
Not to be carelessly printed
So in my writing
One range of mountains has its own arrangement
I have my own rhythm
Su Yun’s Poem:
栅栏
我学会笨拙的飞
或是跳跃
我就去爬盯我千遍的栅栏
用我沾上的泥点记录
我所填过的格块
填满一面
包括尽头挤压变形的铁丝
我忘记笨拙的飞
或是跳跃
我就去走俯视我千遍的横杆
用我脱落的绒羽记录
我所歇息过的桩头
走满千寸
包括中间被冰雹敲掉的木板
当我已经无力，溃烂
就让我的骨头
凭着记忆粘在铁网十字的中心
凝视人巷学会苟活的人们
用混着羽毛捏的泥人
标记十字路口的空间
The Fence
When I learned the clumsy flight
or the leap
I went to climb the fence that had stared at me a thousand times
using the mud spots stuck to me to record
every grid I’d filled
Filling up an entire side
including the twisted wire at the end
When I forgot the clumsy flight
or the leap
I went to walk the crossbar that had looked down on me a thousand times
using the downy feathers I’d shed to record
every post I’d rested on
Walking a thousand inches
including the plank in the middle, knocked off by hailstones
When I’m finally powerless, decaying
let my bones
stick to the center of the iron net’s cross
staring at the crowd in the alley—people who’ve learned to survive by compromise
using a mud doll kneaded with feathers
to mark the space at the crossroads
Suyun, 17 years old, is a member of the China Poetry Society and a young poet. Her works have been published in more than ten countries. She has published poetry collections Yang Fa Wan Wu (Inspiring All Things) and Rui Yu Zhe Si (Wise Words and Philosophical Thoughts) in China, and WITH ECSTASY OF MUSINGS IN TRANQUILITY in India. She is the recipient of the Guido Gozzano Orchard Prize of Italy, the Special Prize for Foreign Writers of the City of Pomezia (with the organizing committee hailing her as “a craftsman of Chinese lyric poetry”), the “Cuttlefish Bone” Award for Best International Writer Under 25, and the Creative Award of the Naji Naaman International Literary Prize of Lebanon.
