Essay from Michael Robinson

Middle aged Black man with short hair and brown eyes. He's got a hand on his chin and is facing the camera.
Michael Robinson

I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

                                           --------Psalm 9:1 NIV

My open-heart surgery on August 30th, 2023 changed me. It altered my entire view of the world and that change showed me the value of my relationship with Jesus Christ. The surgery was to repair four blocked arteries, and without it, certain death would only have been a matter of time. Before my surgery, life had become routine. Each day was a repeat of the day before, except for church on Sunday. My relationship with Jesus Christ existed throughout my life, but this experience meant a change for me. This time the void that always existed in my life changed. I always had a feeling of comfort in the Sanctuary at an early age. Listening to what God had to say to me. 

My salvation started in 1957 at my birth in Baltimore Maryland. Growing up in the darkness of the streets of DC where the only light was the votive candles burning in the Sanctuary.  This silence brought an awareness of peace and comfort. There was a sense of a presence that was quiet and comforting to me. This comfort surrounded me during the surgery. There were no bright lights that I can recall or noise from the heart lung machine or people hustling around me. The operation took six hours and one hour in which my heart was stopped as the heart lung machine pumped blood thru my body. I learned weeks later that once your heart stops beating you are considered legally dead. During the operation there was a sense of space around me. Upon, waking up in a state of disconnection to my surroundings except for that breathing tube in my throat. which was the sensation in my body. Once the tube was removed, I vomited out water and was unable to speak. My memory after the operation was this feeling of space but not time. 

Days passed and with each passing day gradually my senses returned, however there was great discomfort from the surgery. There was still this feeling of space around me. Each day there was a disconnect between me and my surroundings. During this time my emotions were on hold. Thoughts about life without having footprints from the past before the surgery. Thinking is that what one experience when they are born in this physical world? Only thoughts about God were my connection to my surroundings. I still alive and why did God choose me to continue in this world? This feeling of an empty space lasted even as the anesthesia subsided. The physical discomfort lasted for months. God had allowed me to start a new understanding of what life really meant. Only thoughts like I mentioned in childhood of God filled that void in me. 

My waking hours I meditate of God's presence in my life. No fear about life or death are of no concern to me. Wanting to return to the Sanctuary at Asbury United Methodist Church. Sitting in the Sanctuary to fill that void like in childhood. My prayers are simple prayers of gratitude. Jesus Christ have filled that void. Christ Jesus was within me all this time in my childhood. On August 30th 2023 my prayers came to fruition to live for Christ Jesus. 

Poetry from Nosirova Gavhar

Young Central Asian woman with her head in her right hand. She's got long dark straight hair, brown eyes, earrings, and a blue collared shirt and black undershirt.
Nosirova Gavhar

My spring

You gave me a sign, my spring,
Bright green pasture fills the heart.
Everywhere the flower shines,
Scattered on the ground with smallpox.

Almonds bloomed one and all,
You gave me a sign, my spring.
A swallow flies over the sky,
You brought the freshness of spring.

Everywhere covered with beauty,
Enjoyment for young and old.
The children rejoice at this moment,
They still work hard.

Hear the laughter of the youth,
Everyone dances in a circle.
Drawing a rope and horse racing ,
They start the spring game.

The earth is bright today, with peace,
From entertainment and joy.
A burning sensation in every heart
Bring me, always my spring…

Nosirova Gavhar was born on August 16, 2000 in the city of Shahrisabz, Kashkadarya region of Uzbekistan. Today, she is a third-year student of the Faculty of Philology of the Samarkand State University of Uzbekistan. Being a lover of literature, she is engaged in writing stories and poems. Her creative works have been published in Uzbek and English. 

In addition, she is a member of «All India Council for Development of Technical Skills», «Juntos por las letras» of Argentina, «2DSA Global Community». Winner of the «Korabl znaniy» and «Talenty Rossii» contests, holder of the international C1 level in the Russian language, Global Education ambassador of Wisdom University and global coordinator of the Iqra Foundation in Uzbekistan. «Magic pen holders» talented young group of Uzbekistan, «Kayva Kishor», «Friendship of people», «Raven Cage», «The Daily Global Nation», Argentina;s «Multi Art-6», Kenya&;s «Serenity: A compilation of art and literature by women» contains creative works in the magazine and anthology of poets and writers.

Essay from Nozima Baxtiyorova

Sunrise or sunset, pink and light blue sky out a window.

METHODS OF INTRODUCING INNOVATIVE PEDAGOGICAL TECHNOLOGIES IN EDUCATION
Teaching English to Medical students during the COVID-19 pandemic

Baxtiyorova Nozima Atabek qizi

 Student of group 2212, the 3rd English faculty, UzSWLU

Abstract. Governments restricted face-to-face classes during the  COVID-19 pandemic. However, education must be an ongoing process, and the epidemic caused numerous issues in the educational system. Learning foreign languages, particularly English, has become increasingly important in recent years. As a result, the Department of Foreign Languages at Tehran University of Medical Sciences reacted to the new circumstances and devised effective techniques for teaching English to their students online.

Keywords: English language teaching, COVID-19 pandemic, virtual learning, learning management system.

    Relevance of the study English has grown in popularity in the modern era of communication, where expressing one’s views can lead to global integration. Because of the requirement for detail, this field has increased. The primary language utilized to communicate medical essentials is English (Faraj, 2015). According to Milosavljevi (2008), medical professionals and researchers must learn. English to teach in English, to be instructed in English, and to publish their findings in English. Some assessments indicate that the quality of English used in medical contexts, such as classroom instruction, research articles, and courses, has been steadily improving (Hwang & Lin, 2010). Because most scientific, academic, and technical information is communicated in English, English is vital in medicine (Creswell, 2013). As a result, finding means to boost English language training for students of medical and healthcare professions is critical (Milosavljevi, 2008). As previously said, English is the language of choice in global healthcare; consequently, a strong command of the English language is essential to access critical scientific and medical information (Heming & Nandagopal, 2012). Aside from conducting research and gaining knowledge, additional factors demonstrate the importance of the English language in medical education.

    In March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) a global pandemic. As of August 7, 2021, a total of 200,840,180 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with 4,265,903 deaths have been reported globally. Reportedly it originally started in December 2019 in China, yet the first officially documented cases of the disease in Iran were announced on February 19, 2020. In order to control the spread rate of the infection in Iran, the Government decided to close all universities as part of a plan to encourage people to stay at home. As a result, TUMS had to cancel all the face-to-face classes, and as the exact date for the resolution of this calamity could not be determined, education had to continue virtually.

    In 2017, TUMS had already launched a Learning Management System (LMS), called NAVID, as an essential infrastructure for the establishment and development of e-learning. Now NAVID has different facilities for students and professors. Professors and students can see and monitor their current and previous courses, and as an important feature, it allows professors to receive different kinds of reports including all of their activities, students’ collective and individual activities in each course, students’ assignments, assessment of and feedback on the assignments, all the exams’ reports, and the students’ scores and performance in each exam. Professors upload the resources and materials for the students in the ‘Resources and Content Section’ where different types of resources and the prepared teaching materials can be uploaded in a variety of formats. In the ‘Homework Section’, professors can give the assignments and set a deadline for the submission of each assignment. Students can upload their assignments in different forms, namely audio, video, photo, or text, depending on the assignment and the instructions given by the professors. Here professors can give feedback to the students both individually and as a group.

    NAVID allows the professors to design and take various kinds of tests and examinations. Moreover, the ‘Conversation and Messages’ Section allows students and professors to raise questions and discuss ideas. The ‘Class Section’ provides professors and students with the opportunity to arrange for synchronous sessions.

    Since the beginning of the outbreak, in the Spring and Summer semesters of the academic year 2019-2020, and the Fall semester of the academic year 2020-2021, about 4,000 students participated in 183 classes which were administered through NAVID. In order to ensure the quality of education, four working groups were formed by the Department, and the part-time lecturers were asked to join the working groups based on the courses they taught. A full-time member of the faculty took on the responsibility of leading a working group. In these groups, part-time lecturers were asked to report in the written form (based on a certain format) at least two times during the semester to the head of each group. The lecturers could use these working groups to raise questions, discuss ideas with peers and also the head of the group, receive suggestions, and find solutions for the raised issues. The reports of the working groups were compiled by the head of the group and then submitted to the Chair of the Department of the Foreign Languages.

    As teaching has been affected during the pandemic, so has the students’ assessment. Since the academic year 2018-2019, the written summative examinations of English language courses offered by TUMS Department of Foreign Languages were held in TUMS Test Centre electronically, such that students attended the examination sessions in person and took the test online. In the first and second semesters of the academic year 2019-2020, however, the final examinations were held centrally and electronically, but virtually and remotely.

    Students and professors should take advantage of this opportunity to acquaint themselves with, and acquire the skills and competencies needed for, the new era. The pandemic seems to have opened new windows for teaching and learning. Bringing the future into the present and changing our views and attitudes towards virtual and distance education and moving in line with the technology dependent world in the right direction can prove to be a blessing in disguise.

References

  1. Kao GYM. Enhancing the quality of peer review by reducing student “free riding”: Peer assessment with positive interdependence. British Journal of Educational Technology, (2013); 44(1): 112-124. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2011.01278
  2. Price M, Carroll J, O’Donovan B, Rust C. If I was going there I wouldn’t start from here: Acritical commentary on current assessment practice. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, (2011); 36(4): 479-492. doi:10.1080/02602930903512883
  3. Shabani, E.A., Panahi, J. (2021). An Account of Teaching English to Medical Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Academia Letters, Article 3587. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3587
  4. Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) – Office of Vice-Chancellor for Education;2020. Available from https://www.tums.ac.ir/content/details/377?lang=fa
  5. Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) – Statistics and Information Technology Center. TUMS Abstract of Yearbook. Tehran, Iran: TUMS; 2019. Available from https://sit.tums.ac.ir/uploads/2/2020/Aug/09/Abstract%20of%20yearbook98(6).pdf
  6. Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE). The impact of coronavirus on higher education; 2021. Available from  https://www.timeshighereducation.com/hub/keystone-academic-solutions/p/impact-coronavirus-higher-education
  7. Times Higher Education World University Ranking (THE). Times Higher Education’s Digital Teaching Survey results; 2020. Available from https://www.timeshighereducation.com/features/times-higher-educations-digital-teaeching-survey-results
  8. Uto M, Ueno M. Item response theory for peer assessment. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, (2016); 9(2): 157-170. doi:10.1109/TLT.2015.2476806
  9. World Health Organization. WHO coronavirus disease (COVID-19) dashboard; 2020. Available from https://covid19.who.int/

Poetry in translation from Safarova Zarnigor

Young Central Asian teen girl with long dark hair, brown eyes, a white collared shirt and black sweater, with smoky dark styling surrounding the image. She's holding a book and the initials S.Z.Z. are in the lower right corner in white text on a blue tab.

I translated and analyzed Faynberg’s poem from Russian to English.

Сирень

Давай любовь свою оплачем.

Давай свидание назначим,

Не мучаясь и не грустя.

Сегодня. Десять лет спустя.

Давай сирени наломаем.

Любила ты? И я любил.

Апрель цветёт, как ненормальный.

Апрель заборы проломил.

Сирень горька и безутешна.

Сорви мне счастье наугад.

Мы изменились? Мы всё те же,

Как десять лет тому назад.В глазах твоих все те же кроны.

В моих — всё тот же синий дым.

Стекло с вином губами тронув,

Ты говоришь: «Горим?»

— «Горим!»

Куда? О чём? За что горим мы?

Ах, за начала всех начал!

За польский вальс неповторимый.

Он только нам с тобой звучал.

— Горим?

—Горим! За наши годы.

Кольцо на дно со звоном брось.

За то, что дым сирени горек.

За всё, что в жизни не сбылось.Любовь, куда? Не оглянулась.

О, это вечное «увы».

Горим же за чужую юность!

Они целуются, как мы.Горим за всё! За наши беды.

За эту музыку и боль.

За этот мир, от яблонь белый

И от сирени голубой.

Lilac

Let’s lament our love,

Let’s set up a date

Without torment or sorrow,

Today. Ten years later.

Let’s break lilac branches.

You loved, and I loved.

April blooms like it’s abnormal,

April breaks through the fences.

Lilacs are bitter and hopeless.

Tear out happiness for me at random.

Have we changed? We’re still the same

As ten years ago. In your eyes, it’s still the same foliage.

In my eyes, the same blue smoke.

Touching the glass with wine-soaked lips,

You say: “Are we burning?”

— “We’re burning!”

Where to? What about? What are we burning for?

Ah, for all the beginnings there are!

For the unique Polish waltz,

That only sounded for us.

— Burning?

— Burning! For our years.

Throw the ring to the bottom with a clang.

For the bitter smoke of lilacs.

For everything that hasn’t come true in life.

Love, where to? Without a glance,

Oh, this eternal “alas.”

We’re burning for someone else’s youth!

They are kissing, like we did.

Burning for everything! For all our sorrows.

For this music and pain.

For this world, white from apple trees

And blue from the lilacs.

The poem “Lilacs” delves into the complex theme of love, reminiscence, and the passage of time. It begins with an invitation to lament lost love and to set up a date ten years later without torment or sorrow, acknowledging the enduring nature of the emotive moment.

The author then employs vivid imagery by suggesting to break lilac branches, a symbolic act tied to the past relationship. The poem invokes the spirit of April, alluding to its abnormality, and depicts it shattering through the constraints, almost rebellious in its blooming.

The bitter and hopeless nature of the lilacs reflects the disillusionment and unfulfilled emotions tied to that past connection, calling for the unpredictable tearing out of happiness. The narrator questions if they’ve changed over the years, only to conclude that they remain the same as a decade ago, hinting at the persistence of their emotions.

The dialogue within the poem adds depth, as a conversation ensues about burning and the reasons behind it. The questioning of the purpose of their burning and the acknowledgment of past memories creates a reflective and introspective atmosphere, offering a sense of poignancy and longing.

The poem concludes with a broader reflection on burning for someone else’s youth, symbolizing feelings of lost opportunity and nostalgia. It captures a sense of yearning, loss, and a longing for the unfulfilled aspects of life.

In summary, the poem “Lilacs” conveys a deep sense of melancholy and introspection, blending vivid imagery with symbolic meaning to encapsulate the complexities of love, loss, and the passage of time. It evokes a poignant narrative that draws the reader into a contemplation of the enduring impact of love, memory, and the emotive threads that linger on throughout life’s journey.

✓Safarova Zarnigor Zokhid’s daughter student of Uzbekistan  state world languages university

Young aspiring researcher

Author of several scientific articles on gender in linguistics

Scientific works, poems, reviews, thesis and articles have been published at national and international newspapers, conferences and journals.

✓She has published three books internationally and her books are available for sale on Amazon and several other sites

Short story from Doug Hawley

Twin Sisters

I knew I wanted her for a model when I saw the portrait selection at the Portland Art Museum.  She was painted hanging out of the passenger seat of a car waving at something unseen by the museum visitors.  I don’t know if I’m right, but I thought of early Marilyn Monroe.

Despite that my usual work is painting high-priced portraits for the city’s makers and shakers, politicians and business people; I knew I had to paint her.  Didn’t matter if I didn’t sell anything that I painted of her, I’d be happy to keep anything with her in it.  She had an aura which came through the dead canvas.

I checked the artist of her painting – it was George Shaw, somebody I knew well.  As soon as I got home, I asked him how to contact the woman in his painting.  He told me he would check with her to see if she wanted to contact me.  This was highly unusual because most models would welcome a new client without screening him first.

My obsession with the unknown woman kept me fidgeting at home hoping for her call.  Fortunately she called quickly.  “Hi, this is Janice Fellows.  George said you’d like me to model for some paintings.  In all honesty, I’m in high demand, but I’ve been keeping Fridays clear in case something good comes up.  You should be happy to know that you are in high regard among other local painters.  Let’s get acquainted this Friday, say at 3, and see if this works for both of us.  If it works out, bring your paints in case you want to start.”

I had a client meeting about a portrait of a much married tech multi-millionaire who wanted a painting with his adult children and his much younger wife.  Didn’t care, even if it cost me a five figure commission, I would not miss meeting Janice.  She gave me her West Hills address, a couple of miles from my place close to Portland State University.

It was three days until Friday.  Keeping my mind focused on my projects while awaiting our meeting was hell.  I felt like a teenager with a burning crush.  When the time came, after a mile or two of walking to Janice’s house, a very different woman met me at the door.  This woman was clearly older than Janice, had mousy brown hair, a bit of a paunch, and a pock marked face.  She could tell from my face that she was not what I expected.

“Hi, I’m Janice’s sister, fraternal twin, Jody.  You must be Frank.  Yes, I know we look nothing alike.  One of us is the brains, one is the beauty.  I’m obviously the beauty”.  This last was followed by a cackle.

“Now that you’ve heard my standard joke, here is the reality.  She does the modeling which brings in plenty of coin.  She isn’t dumb, but uninterested in the business end.  I do the buying, pay the bills, collect the money, do the accounting.  Between the two of us, we do alright.  She is always late to her meetings, it’s not a bug it’s a feature.”  She laughed at her joke again, while I tried to make sense of the situation.  “Want to sit down, have a drink, or discuss politics while you wait?  By the way, her fee is the going rate.”  At the time, the going rate was $100 per hour, more or less.  As an independent contractor she didn’t get Social Security or unemployment pay from a client.

Given those choices, I asked for a Scotch.  We ended up talking about painting and art in general while we waited.  After a while, Jody said she had some business to take care of and went through a door marked “Business Office”.  I finished my drink, and after a few minutes Janice came out to usher me into her studio.

If possible Janice was more than I expected from the painting.  I very much appreciate soft, voluptuous female flesh, and Janice had it in abundance.  She asked in a voice like honey “What do you want to do today?”

I almost slipped up and told her what I really wanted to do, but instead said “How about I take a few sketches”.  She agreed, and I spent a few minutes with my sketch pad.

“Janice, how do you feel about plein art?”

“Frank, I don’t leave my house.  Jody takes care of everything so I have no reason to leave.”

“It’s too bad; I’d really like to paint you at the beach.”

Janice laughed, and went to a trunk.  She pulled out a folded coastal backdrop with crab shells, a mix of different colored sand, with waves in the background.  Think you can paint me now?”

She was dressed quite modestly, so I told her she wasn’t dressed for the beach.

“No problem”, and with that she completely disrobed and went to her wardrobe and put on a swimsuit.

I did what I could to hide my arousal.  She looked and laughed again.  “So you are happy to see me.”

We went through the posing and lighting until we were both pleased.  I spent the next hour painting.

When finished, I got ready to go.  She grabbed my hand before I could leave and said “I like you, why don’t we get really happy before you go.  You won’t be charged for the extra work.”

Her very comfortable couch got a strenuous workout.  She inspired me to perform like my long gone teen years.

On my way out Jody gave me a very lecherous look including winks and asked “Want to schedule this for the Fridays into the future?”

I managed a strangled “Uh, yes.”

George knew about my meeting with Janice and called me later that day to ask about it.  I told him that it went well.  After a pregnant pause during which I suspected George was expecting something a little risqué, he said “Uh, good.   Glad it went well.”  This made me wonder about George’s sessions with Janice.

The next several Fridays seemed literally magical.  Janice looked different every Friday and not just hair, lighting or makeup.  Her nose changed size, both up and down.  After wondering if she could be too voluptuous, the next week she was slightly, but visibly thinner.  Whenever I would think of an outdoor setting for a painting, she would pull an appropriate backdrop out her trunk.

Did imagining her behaving as we did every Friday with her other clients bother me?  Sure, but one day a week with Janice, was worth all week with someone else.

At the same time, I got closer to Jody.  She was so intelligent and charming, her looks ceased to matter.  If we talked about something as boring as weather, she could quote outstanding world rainfall or heat statistics.  She was an expert on all the areas of art – painting, writing, acting, all of it.  She solved math puzzles for fun.

After the fifth modeling session with Janice, I invited Jody out to dinner at my place.  After eating, we started telling jokes.  “A priest, a parson and a rabbi go into a bar.  The bartender asks ‘Is this some kind of joke?’”

Next we went into dirty stories.  I surprised both of us by telling her “You can sleep here tonight if you want.”

The next morning I woke up with a different woman – Janice.  I jumped out of bed and yelled “What the hell!?”

Janice said “The short answer is that I’m what you might call a witch or a really good hypnotist.  I can appear to people any way I want.  It’s called casting glamors.”

“I don’t believe it.  You and Jody pranked me.  You switched while I was asleep.”

“You think so?  Then how about this.”  Jody appeared where Janice had been.

I spent a couple of days in a catatonic state.  During that time I had a lucid dream.  It took place in Janice’s apartment.  I wasn’t there, but I could see what was happening.  Instead of Jody going into her business office, it was Dinah who had a crush on me in college.  I hadn’t treated her well then, so I yelled at her “I’m sorry, I treated you badly”.

She looked around and said “It sounds like you Frank, but I don’t see anyone”.  Dinah’s clothes and appearance slowly morphed into Janice as she went through Jody’s office and through a door into Jody’s studio.  I was in the studio, but I woke up before anything else happened.

I knew then how and when the Jody to Janice transformation was hidden from me and I remembered that I had never seen them together.

Coming out of catatonia, I realized how fortunate I was.  Now it’s Fridays with Janice, and other times with Jody.  Rather than try to make sense of it, I just accept that I’m the luckiest man alive.  I don’t dwell on what Janice does on days that I don’t see her.

Before meeting Jody and Janice, I was a twice divorced sad sack chasing money.  I now know that I can accept and give love.  I’ve cut back on some of my lucrative work, and do pro bono or inexpensive work for poorly funded charities, houses of worship, and uplifting murals.  The Art Museum now has a small room with a permanent exhibition of several paintings of Janice and Jody.  They should be shared with the world.

Joshua Martin reviews Irene Koronas’ gnostos

Book cover for Irene Koronas' gnostos. Book cover and the background for the cover image are brown. Black armless humanoid figures of varying heights cluster together with blue and yellow heads with a single black squiggle.

A Review of gnōstos, volume VII of  The Grammaton Series

by Joshua Martin

gnōstos (BlazeVOX, 2023), volume VII or Irene Koronas’ The Grammaton Series, continues her trajectory of extreme experimentalism through a fragmented poetic language filled with radical juxtapositions, snippets, neologisms, and minimalistically ecstatic aphorisms. Linguistic flares and miniature rhapsodies. Each word a new world unto itself, brimming with exaltation, reveling in the illogical and the mystic. Overflowing with rich treats and poetic mashups. A heady potpourri of languages and references, this wildly inventive and diverse work probes the very nature of our 21st century world. Filled, as it is, with huge amounts of textual varieties, never standing still, always performing new and perverse syntactical experiments and collisions.

Letters, words, language itself, are simply building blocks for an expansive and stimulating poetics that reaches into the fringes of what language can and should do. At times reminiscent of Russian Futurism (particularly Khlebnikov and Kruchenykh) and its desire to transcend conventional language, creating something spontaneous through Zaum, Koronas’ work seems to be developing a new language all its own, free from the rigidity of grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, no matter its origin. And there is a myriad of origins in Koronas’ work. Her seemingly endless knowledge of a wide range subjects, alphabets, theories, languages, and texts is impressive and inspiring. Koronas’ work is written with a scholar’s information and an experimental poet’s skill. Khlebnikov’s “language of the gods” and “language of the stars” aptly applies to gnōstos.

Though the length of many of these lines are often quite brief, they are packed with beauty, sublimity, and chaos. Many words are new creations in themselves. Disorienting, transfixing, and sonically innovative, gnōstos deftly explodes poetic convention, instead offering the reader a dizzying array of staccato riffs and verbal treats. There is no net. As readers, we are free floating among her endlessly unique creations. At times, the speed at which Koronas’ lines whizz by can make us feel lightheaded in the best possible sense. We feel as though we are reading lightning strikes on a page. 

Language is taken apart, constructed, reconstructed, and made into an entirely new thing. Mystical and rapturous, reading Koronas is like reading an invented language, offering us a whole new way of seeing, being, and understanding. A poetics that wishes to explode, implode, and pull apart all conventions in order to find something truly novel. Experimentation at its finest. A radical performance seeking to encompass the entire cosmos in its fragments.

Exciting, elusive, entirely readable, illogical, visionary, and virtuosic. Bending, breaking, forming and reforming. Reading gnōstos is an inspiring and disorienting experience. A work which requires multiple readings in order to truly absorb its many secrets, mysteries, and triumphs. The Grammaton Series is a massive undertaking not only in its length and scope, but in its bold and formidable search for invention. gnōstos is reaching for something unique and intangible, pulling readers along as far as it can toward something visionary and profound.

Irene Koronas’ new book gnostos is available from publisher BlazeVox here.

Essay from Mahmudul Hasan Fahim

Young South Asian boy with short brown hair, brown eyes, and a white collared school uniform shirt with a decal on his chest.
Mahmudul Hasan Fahim

GRAVE AND LIFE

Hi guys! Hope you are well by the grace of Allah.
Friends, my religion is Islam and it is the fastest growing religion in the world. But many times I have heard some negative thoughts and rumors from the people of other religion.
Now I am here to fix those issues.

Introduction: Burial is a process where we have to bury people in soil after they die. But before burying we have to complete some more cultural rituals. First of all we have to wait, so that many people can see the dead man last time and can get support from other
people. Then we have to wash the body to make the body holy and clean. Then we took “khatiya” means a type of vehicle which is powered by four people by hand. Before burying we
have to say a prayer for that the dead person that Allah will forgive the man and give him/her Paradise. Then we bury the body with a white cloth named ‘Kafon’.

Negative thoughts: the negative thoughts of other people are:

1. Burial takes up too much space
2. Burial doesn't offer anyone benefits
3. Burial costs too much money for the land and plot
4. Burial is useless

Now I will tell you the advantages

Natural advantages: first of all we don’t have enough trees and the climate is changing every year and we are at risk. But when we make a family place for graves we will have a garden of trees. On the other hand the water level is decreasing every year because of concrete and human made structures. But when we have a place for graves we automatically make a place where the soil can absorb water. And also the dead body will serve as natural fertilizer for soil.

Emotional advantage: In many religions like Hinduism, they burn the body and throw the ashes into the Ganga river. Because of that fire there is air pollution and they can't feel the loved one again physically. But when it comes to a grave there aren't pollution problems. In fact it is healthy for nature. And you can share your feelings with the people in front of the grave. In fact if you are worried about the dead person, you can also pray for him/her in front of the
grave and the next generation will also recognize the dead people.

Now many people will tell that grave takes too much space but I have to tell you that it is renewable. In fact, in the soil of your property there is a buried person. It can be 50,100,150, 200 years old and that is true.

(Disclaimer: It is made only for education purpose. We are not doing hate speech. We are just telling what truth is.)
Thanks.

Mahmudul Hasan Fahim is a student of grade 9 in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.