(Light skinned Latina woman in a shiny blue top with a stylized pink and purple background).

My Mom (In Memory) 

She wasn’t the rising sun, 

but the gentle breeze of dawn 

that caressed my face. 

A faithful companion, 

a sturdy oak tree in the storm, 

she knew how to console my childhood tears, 

transforming them into fresh dew. 

A mother of four, 

a juggler of time and love, 

while Dad sailed the seas, 

she was the safe harbor, 

the beacon that guided our dreams. 

She was the most beautiful flower in the garden, 

with the sweet scent of jasmine 

that filled our home in Concepción 

del Uruguay, Entre Ríos. 

Kind, generous heart, 

a mighty river of affection, 

loved by all, 

she left a trail of light 

with every step. 

My mom is not just a memory, 

but the constant melody 

that resonates in my soul. 

She is the star that guides my path, 

the warm hug that comforts me, 

the unconditional love that 

sustains me, 

even though she is no longer 

physically present. 

GRACIELA NOEMI VILLAVERDE is a writer and poet from Concepción del Uruguay (Entre Rios) Argentina, based in Buenos Aires She graduated in letters and is the author of seven books of poetry, awarded several times worldwide. She works as the World Manager of Educational and Social Projects of the Hispanic World Union of Writers and is the UHE World Honorary President of the same institution Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. She is the Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS DIVISION, of the UNACCC SOUTH AMERICA ARGENTINA CHAPTER.

The Poetry of Escalations by Armenida Qyqja

(By Inga Zhghenti)

My latest article on contemporary Georgian poetry titled Where Does Georgian Poetry Stand Today? looks at the modern poetic voice of Georgia. I would apply the same question to any poetry of today—in this world of constant changes with dramatically turbulent technological aspirations which still a failure to prioritize and secure peace. 

After reading Golden Armor, the poetry collection by Tirana-born Armenida Qyqja, I would rather generalize my question: “Where does poetry stand today?” The answer would be: “At the crossroads” of physical and spiritual uncertainties and escalations, making up the blood and body of any real poetry. These uncertainties and escalations are inseparable constituents of the book Golden Armor as it captures the most intimate and relatable journeys of searching the idea of “the self,” the unattainability and vulnerability of happiness, the unavoidability of fate, and the determined void and futility of the contemporary world dictated by consumerism, fabricated reality, and promulgated injustice, all juxtaposed with the concerns conditioned by the realization and recognition of life’s absurdity. 

The lyrical hero narrates the stories through emotions where physical and spiritual quests and pains interweave and intermix without borders. The voice speaking up in different poems exposes the feelings of alienation, loneliness, emptiness, and imperceptible and evasive time. The lines of the poems manifest alienation as both psychological and physical exile. 

In the poem “Sons and Daughters of Pragmatism,” the poet calls us “the sons and daughters of pragmatism” who “wink an eye at our own image in the mirror and run along.” The passage sets the scene of individuals escaping from their reflections and perceptions, thus demonstrating quite common detachment from the self of nowadays. 

The poem “They Say” also explores unrecognized alienation and emptiness reflected in the mirror. In the first two lines, the piece delivers a vivid image of existential isolation: “I’ve been hiding from myself for a long time, I hide from that emptiness that can’t be seen in a mirror,” somehow reminiscent of Sartrean nausea. The existential plights are further outlined in the poems “Waiting to Hear Your Voice” and “Somewhere, Near the Heart,” where emotional longing for the loved one’s presence and somewhat Beckettean absurdism are interspersed. 

The poet’s figurative stance finds particular comfort in juxtaposing images. Therefore, love and war are explored side by side, thus stipulating the fortuitousness and illogicality of events. In “Bitter Thoughts,” the concept of love faces the threat of destruction in wartime. On the other hand, the gratitude for not being born in a war-torn land is tinged with survivor’s guilt. The poet exposes the tragedy of war and the fatality of love through the destruction of Gaza and Ukraine. 

Undated Battles also envisions the theme of love and war through the lens of violence. This retrospect might be alluding to T.S. Eliot’s representation of the fragmented nature of human existence in chaotic times. Although the self of the lyrical hero is broken, deconstructed, and fragmented by the challenges of existence, there remains a constant yearning for meaning and redemption in the quest the hero reveals. 

The poems “Come Closer,” “Find Me,” and “When You Shall Arrive” still find it meaningfully worth striving to reconcile with the self. In “Come Closer,” the power of love is seen as a bridging domain in existential voids, thus somehow resonating with Rainer Maria Rilke’s notion of love being challenging but yet a necessary “confrontation” with another soul.  

One more significant focus of the poetry collection by Armenida Qyqja is the struggles of the fragmented and dismantled self in the materialized universe guided by social media and the futility of its content. “Mental Paralysis” communicates criticism about the superficiality of social media, assessing it as an anesthetic silencing of independent reasoning, quite similar to George Orwell’s warnings declared in his novel 1984. 

Spiritual decay and consumerism are condemned in “Mercenaries of Chaos,” in this sense resonating with Jean Baudrillard’s theories on hyperreality, where reality is replaced by fabricated spectacle. The poem diagnoses the modern world by anorexia, both spiritual and modern: 

Spiritual and mental anorexia,

that has no cure, no stimulus,

the most evil chronic condition

is going to wipe out the human race

at a much higher rate

than all viruses created in labs.

But still, there is a belief that

this darkness shall pass,

its curtains won’t be able to restrain the sun forever,

close your eyes and see with the light (For the strong…)

The entire trajectory of the words in the book replays the inner voice of the human, attacked by the destructive nature of existence exposed through wars, hatred, emptiness, absurdity, and the fatality of life. Nevertheless, the author does not kneel to all these challenges stipulated by life’s nature but stands up to overcome them all through longing for the voice of love and survival, as the mythological Greek king Sisyphus stands against fate through his relentless attempts admired throughout the centuries.  

Armenida Qyqja was born in Tirana, Albania in 1977 and immigrated to Canada in 1995. She is the author of eight poetry books and two books of short stories. Her most recent book is Golden Armor, a poetry collection published by Transcendent Zero Press (Texas, USA 2025).

Dr. Inga Zhghenti is a Fulbright Scholar, translator, and literary scholar whose work bridges Georgian and American cultures. She has translated Samuel Beckett, Louise Glück, Emily Dickinson, John Updike, Diane di Prima, and leading Georgian poets, with publications in the international poetry platform Versopolis, Georgia’s leading literary journal Arili, and Upsala Literature Magazine (Sweden). Active as a reviewer, editor, and cultural advocate, she is a Visiting Professor of English at DeVry University, teaching Composition and Advanced Composition, and directs Language Arts at the Georgian-American Cultural Center Dancing Crane in New York. She speaks internationally on literature, translation, and identity, advancing dialogue across languages and cultures through scholarship and creativity.

Did you notice that there aren’t any mirrors in here?

John Biscello’s 5^th novel, The Last Furies, is a redolent, speculative box of matches; evoking his characters mosaiced spiritual reckonings; disjointed love triangles and haunted house of mirrors; in a taut avant-garde and hybrid-writing-form which boldly experiments with poetry and prose that is both lyric narrative and dreamscape, not unlike Elizabeth Smart’s surrealist prose poem novel By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept.

With a background in screen-writing, these influences are Biscello’s nod to cinema and emphasis on art and visual components, often eschewing traditional formatting, in keeping with surrealist writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s style, to explore emotion and spiritual quests, without typical rule-book. The publishers, Lost Telegram Press, have created an artbook with interior postcard, to complement this fragmentary style, where cinematic-scene-play, sits with a lush dream-style, reminiscent of French New Wave in its refusal to explain itself.  A screen-play within a novel, permitting entry from our own ubiquitous world, to this discomfiting navarre.

Biscello utilizes elaborate world-building images; icons, tarot and psychological-affliction, to represent erasure by the passing and haunting of nonsequential time. His philosophical introspection engages readers to question abstractions of identity, with narratives taking inner journeys. Those phantasmagoric elements are not simply beguiling to consume, but serve as totems to explore more multiplex themes concerning society. A blurring of reality into dream state, permits Biscello to draw on less prosaic narratives and convention, to explore camouflaged-themes of reality and perception, not unlike Aldous Huxley’s eponymous book. This results in an unsettling atmosphere exemplifying humanities primal fear of chaos and instability, where we mislay our ability to comprehend truth; seeing instead, the fragility of reality through surrealism.

Viola felt as if she were watching a scene from a film that had never been made, in a time and a place that had never existed.

Surrealism in film attempted the same; film-makers endeavored to tap into the unconscious mind, harnessing the seeming illogic of dream state, to reject norms of rationalism and conventional storytelling. Biscello employs kindred jarring, symbolic imagery; borrowing film-techniques of non-linear editing in how he writes, to disorientate and provoke deeper consideration. His writing mirrors surrealists attempts to revolutionize cinema from passive diversion, into a tool exploring hidden desires, fears, and different layers of reality, beyond usual consciousness, much as writer/artist Leonora Carrington did. Biscello invites us to suspend time and merge histories, with less scene-breaks and; “intimately swapped semblances of reality.”

The Furies is part memory and nostalgia, part journey toward grasping identity and a powerful social commentary on the absurdity of the crushing weight of tradition, in a similar vein to Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez. “Why so much fear of masks? Because the tears we cry burns acid through em which devours our skin.” All writers consider ‘the unreliable selfhood’ whereby phantasmagoric storytelling skews perceptions of reality, based on mis-en-scene’s instability. These fantastical disparate elements and gathering of icons, mirror a deeper psychological break; considering trauma and madness as part in any stories tapestry.

Biscello’s startling evocation of spectral vaudeville alongside theater, draws these influences to break free of the mortal actors’ stage, weighing his character’s inner-lives beyond performance. Questions of where we go when we exceed our fictional-lives, can be applied to the reader as much as fictional-character, because as a universal question, in an increasing artificial reality, we’re already experiencing this disassociation. With a mystical radio that can defy time and space, through main protagonists, Viola, Evie and Arturo; an actress, playwright, and poet, Biscello engages phantasmagorical means to transcend history and ask germane questions.  Considerations of whether technology is dreamed into existence, or means of entering a private esthetic, creating an immersive atmospheric dreamworld and interfacing like radio-waves do? What was once disparate, permits us to see differently; against an allegorical shamanistic universe, seeking the unknown, in a collectivized unconsciousness.

Biscello possesses no literary canon or convention; his surrealist annotations stir in evocative desertscapes, whose inhabitants exist as characters from Tarot, poetry, Joan-of-Arc inspired suicide cults, mystics and artistic-outsiders. Carl Theodore Dreyer’s 1928 silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc, is one of the fundamental components in The Furies; intersecting narrative, whereby Artaud, claimed his ouvre; “was intended to reveal Joan as the victim of one of the most terrible of all perversions: the perversion of a divine principle in its passage through the minds of men, whether they be Church, Government, or what you will.” These metamorphic tours through the mutable wilds of persona, are backdrops for profound undertone, alongside an erudite exploration of unreality, mirroring the character’s inner-world. The novel’s atmosphere itself, becomes a character, with its own influence.

Phantasmagorical novels operate on the impossible and illogical, rarely explaining anomalous events within their narrative. Releasing the need for a clear set of rules for their magical system; magical realism can feature fantastical events, in the real-world, utilizing ghosts and prophecy in a philosophical, puzzle-like introspection They explore vertiginous intellectual conceits, not least; parallel realities, which permit the fantastical to be plausible. The bizarre metamorphosis of protagonists, slipping into a phantasmagorical realm, allow obscure magical elements like a radio, to be key tools in exploring more psychological themes of isolation and belonging.

Biscello’s reality is a threshold hallucination, considering individual perceived reality, against a shared universe outside the laws of time, ultimately begging us to imagine, what would we find? Both in ourselves and without.

Phaedra, Phaedra, was it all a dream?

I’m now sealed in and withering

Having lost the golden key.

Candice Louisa Daquin is the author of several poetry collections, and her debut novel, The Cruelty, will be released on November 25th, 2025 (FlowerSong Press).

John Biscello’s The Last Furies is available here.

Mother!

Mother! I can’t find words to describe you.

You spend tons of sleepless nights.

Your heart is white, your words If I am sick, you pat my head. white, your intentions are white,

Mom, I love your smile

When you laugh, there is always joy and no sadness.

You are the joy of the family, my mother.

Without you there is no happiness and no smile

Rakhmiddinova Mushtariy Ravshanovna was born on March 1, 2011 in Gulistan district, Syrdarya region. She is currently a 9th grade student. Mushtariy is interested in writing poetry, reading books, drawing, and playing sports. 

So far, she has read more than 100 books. She appeared on television in kindergarten at the age of 3 and still appears on television. In the “Bilagon Bolajon” competition, she took 2nd place in English in the 2nd grade, and 3rd place in Reading in the 4th grade. She also took 1st 2nd 3rd place in handball and was awarded with medal certificates. She is a participant in the regional stage of the “Young Book Reader Kids” competition. She takes part in many competitions and projects. In the future, she will become a sign language teacher. She is preparing to enter college.

Her dream is to make everyone proud of Mushtariy and travel abroad. She has also participated in many anthologies and webinars. Currently, she has won more than 50 books, received more than 500 thousand in cash prizes and international, official certificates. She has participated in Olympiads and won honorable places.

Preserving The Language Is Preserving the Nation

This article clearly highlights the role and importance of the native language in the life of the nation. It emphasizes that language is the most important wealth that expresses the history, culture, and spirituality of the people. It also argues that the Uzbek language has been given the status of a state language, and that its preservation and development is the duty of every citizen, and that respecting the language is interpreted as a symbol of loyalty to the nation. As a result, it is deeply expressed that preserving the language is preserving the nation. 

TILNI ASRASH – MILLATNI ASRASHDIR

Annotatsiya:  Ushbu maqolada ona tilining millat hayotidagi o‘rni va ahamiyati ochiq tarzda yoritilgan. Unda til xalqning tarixini, madaniyatini, ma’naviyatini ifodalovchi eng muhim boylik ekani ta’kidlab o‘tilgan. Shuningdek, o‘zbek tiliga davlat tili maqomi berilgani, uni asrash va rivojlantirish har bir fuqaroning burchi ekanligi fikr yuritiladi, bundan tashqari, tilni e’zozlash esa millatga sadoqat ramzi sifatida talqin etiladi. Natijada, tilni asrash – millatni asrash ekani chuqur ifodalangan.Kalit so‘zlar: Til, madaniyat, millat, ona tili, Vatan, ma’naviyat, tarix

PRÉSERVER LA LANGUE, C’EST PRÉSERVER LA NATION 

Annotation : Cet article met clairement en lumière le rôle et l’importance de la langue maternelle dans la vie de la nation. Il souligne que la langue est la richesse la plus précieuse, exprimant l’histoire, la culture et la spiritualité du peuple. Il soutient également que la langue ouzbèke a reçu le statut de langue d’État, que sa préservation et son développement sont le devoir de chaque citoyen et que le respect de la langue est interprété comme un symbole de loyauté envers la nation. Par conséquent, il est profondément exprimé que préserver la langue, c’est préserver la nation. Mots-clés : Langue, culture, nation, langue maternelle, patrie, spiritualité, histoire

Jumanazarova Zuhra Kattakurgan State Pedagogical Institute Student of Foreign Language and Literature +998500406125 jumanazarovaz896@gmail.com 

Keywords

Language, culture, nation, native language, Homeland, spirituality, history

Introduction

Language is the mirror of the human soul. It reflects not only the human heart but also the past, present, future, culture, and many other aspects of a nation. It is no coincidence that we call our language “mother tongue.” Therefore, we must cherish, respect, preserve, and pass it on to future generations in its purest form.

Language is considered the clothing of a person — and how beautifully one wears it depends on the individual. Some people can make even simple clothing look graceful, while for others, even the most beautiful garments lose their charm [1].

Additionally, according to Article 1 of the newly revised Constitution, “The state language of the Republic of Uzbekistan is Uzbek” [Const. Art. 1]. This is one of the significant steps on the path to independence for our country, and today the Uzbek language has become a symbol of national identity, rich heritage, and cultural values.

Main Part

Every nation has values that reflect its spiritual maturity, and one of these values is undoubtedly language. Our beautiful and rich language can stand shoulder to shoulder with the world’s greatest languages. Our mother tongue, with its deep historical roots and political-legal foundations, is a sacred spiritual achievement of our people. Having passed through glorious and honorable paths, enduring many storms and challenges, our national language continues to assert its grandeur and prominence as the state language.

As our President once stated, “Whoever wishes to feel the grace, charm, and power of the Uzbek language should listen to the lullabies of our gentle mothers, the thousand-year-old epics, our immortal maqoms, and the enchanting songs of our bards and singers.” [2] From these words, we can understand that language is the core of every nation’s culture. It defines the progress and future of the people, unites them, and preserves their traditions and customs. Each of us must contribute to raising the international prestige of our native language and help it join the ranks of globally recognized and developed languages.

Through language, nations preserve their cultures and traditions. Once children stop learning in their native language, that language is doomed to extinction. The great enlightener Cho‘lpon once said: “If a language disappears, the nation disappears with it.” Thus, preserving our language is our sacred duty.

If we corrupt our language by mixing it with unnecessary foreign words, it will negatively affect our thinking and damage our spirituality. It is known that during the seventy years of totalitarian rule, the Uzbek language also suffered — Russian was used as the official language of communication, education, and culture. Unfortunately, even today, there are young people who consider speaking Russian to be a sign of “culture.” Moreover, many families communicate in Russian at home, which undermines the preservation and purity of our mother tongue. Speaking in pure and fluent Uzbek is the highest form of respect for our nation [3].

 Indeed, in today’s era of rapid technological development, each of us must act as a guardian of our language. Protecting language is not only the duty of specialists and linguists but also the responsibility of every citizen of Uzbekistan. We should teach our children to read quality books in Uzbek, to use the rich vocabulary of our language, and to observe spelling rules. It is essential to promote pure and literary Uzbek in mass media and social networks. Every comment and expression reflects our attitude toward our native language.

Older generations must serve as role models for the youth in valuing language. Young people learn from the speech and behavior of their elders. Preserving language means showing respect for the past, being careful in the present, and assuming responsibility for the future. Maintaining languages means preserving the culture, customs, and traditions of a people, for the destiny of a nation is closely tied to the destiny of its language. Language unites, educates, and shapes a nation. Therefore, each of us should deeply respect our language to elevate its prestige on the international stage and ensure its rightful place among the most advanced languages of the world. 

October 21, 1989, is the day when the Uzbek language was granted the status of a state language, and since then, this date has been celebrated widely as the Day of the Uzbek Language [4]. During the ceremony dedicated to the 30th anniversary of granting the Uzbek language state status, President Sh. Mirziyoyev emphasized that “The day the Law on the State Language was adopted — October 21, 1989 — marked a powerful force uniting our people and mobilizing society toward great goals.

At the same time, it was the first decisive step toward the independence of Uzbekistan.” Indeed, granting state status to the Uzbek language was among the earliest steps toward national independence. During the years of independence, our language, like all other fields, has undergone significant progress. Its international prestige has risen considerably. The “Law on the State Language” has created broad opportunities to reveal the full beauty and expressiveness of our language and to develop it scientifically.

Scholars have published encyclopedias, dictionaries, textbooks, and manuals. One remarkable achievement is the five-volume “Explanatory Dictionary of the Uzbek Language”, which includes over eighty thousand words and expressions from various fields, dialects, and areas of knowledge. The status of the Uzbek language has been legally enshrined in the Constitution, making it a sacred symbol of the state — alongside the flag, emblem, and anthem — protected by law [5].

Furthermore, every citizen of Uzbekistan, regardless of ethnicity, is free to learn foreign languages. Today, our students in preschools, general schools, and universities can speak four or five languages fluently. Children of different nationalities study together in harmony, respecting each other’s languages — and such respect fosters understanding and peace. Thus, people take pride in belonging to a nation through language.

Recognizing and respecting all languages is the foundation of peace. Every nation strives to preserve its language for this very reason.In the early 20th century, the protection and development of language also became a central concern for Jadid literature representatives. Through the efforts of enlighteners such as Ashurali Zohiriy, Avloniy, Behbudiy, and Fitrat, the Uzbek language was refined, and national grammar was established [6].

One of the most patriotic figures among them, Mahmudkho‘ja Behbudi, paid special attention to the issue of language. A true patriot and intellectual cannot ignore the fate of his language, for language is the spirit, soul, and great value of a nation. Behbudi’s linguistic ideas were closely connected with his educational and cultural reform activities. In his view, a nation must receive education and study its literary heritage in its native language for the development of national consciousness.

Conclusion

Language is the mirror of the nation and the pride of the people. To protect it means to protect our identity. When every citizen treats their mother tongue with love and respect, the power of that language grows even stronger. Therefore, loving the language and using it beautifully and correctly are the signs of a truly cultured person.

The great writer Abdulla Qodiriy once said: “The Uzbek language is not poor; those who call it poor are themselves impoverished. Let them not blame their ignorance on the Uzbek language.” These words remind us to honor and cherish our state language and recognize its true value. We must never forget that our mother tongue, like our Motherland, is sacred and dear, always deserving of attention and respect. The more we protect and preserve our native language, the more we safeguard our homeland, our state, and our families.

List of References

Jamolova. Y. https://yuz.uz/uz/news/ona-tili–millat-ruhi sayti, Toshkent: Madaniyat, 2021.Hasanov. A. Pedagogika fanlari boʻyicha falsafa doktori, dotsent – Toshkent: Yangi Oʻzbekiston, 2024.

Abdumutalibova. X. “Ona tili – millatning ruhi” – Toshkent:https://www.iiau.uz/oz/news/4269 sayti, 2025.Ismoilova.M. “Jahon minbarlarida yangrayotgan ona tilim” – Toshkent: Jahon minbarlari, 2025.

Sobirova. G.”Tilni asrash, rivojlantirish millatni yuksaltirishning muhim  omilidir “ –  Xorazm: Yuz.uz platformasi, 2023.

Lutfullayeva.D. “Tilni asrash-millatni asrash hisoblanadi”– Toshkent: Madaniyat,  2025.Wikipedia.

Mahmudxo‘ja Behbudiy. https://uz.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmudxo%CA%BBja_Behbudiy

When the wolf lurks 

When the wolf lurks 

All sheep are good 

all are innocent 

the ones to blame for their 

unfortunate lives are the others… 

But when the storm comes 

that’s when the sheepskin falls 

you only realize 

it was just a disguise… 

All the time he was by your side 

studying your movements 

immersed in the daily grind. 

Pretending to be good 

he was even lurking in the darkness of your rest… 

Thank goodness 

divine protection exists and 

protects his children 

from those with ill intentions. 

When you recognize it, 

remember: the mistakes 

committed were not yours… 

The evil of others is not your fault…

Mirta Liliana Ramírez has been a poet and writer since she was 12 years old. She has been a Cultural Manager for more than 35 years. Creator and Director of the Groups of Writers and Artists: Together for the Letters, Artescritores, MultiArt, JPL world youth, Together for the letters Uzbekistan 1 and 2. She firmly defends that culture is the key to unite all the countries of the world. She works only with his own, free and integrating projects at a world cultural level. She has created the Cultural Movement with Rastrillaje Cultural and Forming the New Cultural Belts at the local level and also from Argentina to the world.