Corsica 

France valued you at a price, and Genoa prospered from your sale.

Your isle of beauty took France’s lustful glances, as Genoa for gain, sold her costly Cabochon.

Your beautiful bay and dramatic cliffs caused so much contention for your dowry.

Palombaggia’s white sands are lovers’ basking points, where dreams and many fantasies come to fruition.

Rocky coves, diverse plains and mountainous interiors attract every romantic adventurer seeking your atmospheric and fragrant scrubland.

You are the pearl between Italy and France!

The very beautiful bride between, guarded jealously by France’s over-protective all seeing eye.

Bonaparte first inhaled you at infancy! 

On Saint Helena’s very distant bland shores, he nostalgically christened you his childhood paradise.

In his depths of longing, he craved and craved for your fragrant earth, like one who craved for his departed Josephine!

Joseph C Ogbonna is a widely published poet, former high school teacher and an amateur historian. Some of his many works have been published in Spillwords Press, North of Oxford, Waxpoetry Magazine, Borderless magazine, Micromance magazine, PoetryXhunger and in at least two dozen anthologies. He is also an Amazon International best selling co-author.

YOU ARE THE BEGINNING

Your soul is a boundless sky,

Its stars are ever watchful, never sleeping,

Like silver flowers in an indigo field.

The garden where our souls met,

Beneath a canopy of fire that doesn’t burn the skin,

But warms the depths of our being.

In the gentle sway of your spirit 

and the light of your gaze, I see the dance of shadows,

When the soft twilight of your presence 

meets the golden light of dawn,

Victorying over every night with a radiant smile.

You are the beginning and the end,

When the world remains a mountain shrouded in mist,

And the road is long and winding through the forest of time,

Your heart has become the melody of my blossoms,

The pulse of the hidden stream 

that carries my song to the sea.

You are the music the wind whispers to the leaves,

The song felt before it is heard.

In your serene stillness,

A captivating beauty is revealed, 

like a wildflower at midnight.

A beauty that glows with a faint, burning flame. 

It is a spirit that rises and stretches 

until it touches the edge of infinity.

I see you in the purity of morning dew,

Water as clear as a mountain spring,

A spirit as wild as the west wind.

Our love is an ocean without limits,

Without a bottom, sweet and eternal.

In the features of your face, 

in the light of your eyes, 

I find the beginning and end of every path.

You are the first breath in our journey,

And the radiance of all that is written for us to be.

Your spirit is the beginning and end of my path.

Symptoms of An Effortless Adoration

2.

All of our conversations, I remember almost exactly. 

Some say I am clearly confused for

gaining a rise from how hard I fall intended towards one, yet

I feel it’s wise to be a fool for you.

1.

A pure personality tainted by those parallel to I,

on different plains of style we find commonalities and share secrets, 

destined to be revealed to each other, building bonds through kind insults,

I must say, when you call me a loser, that is when I feel the most like a winner.

0.

Once in awhile, I’ll constantly call back to our quick chats,

considering all possibilities of the actions that I won’t take into account.

I drive my mind to pick my future, the only option being not to decide.

It is seriously comical at how hideous this ethereal appreciation is.

-1.

My intellect creates rooms of demolition where my fantasies become reality.

Even so, I am burned by the realness that remains frozen 

oddly throughout my body, past the parts I can’t perceive.

I am hidden from my flaws, you are known for your perfection.

-2.

When you flood my dry phone, I’ll smile and

while my body is pierced, bleeding a gentle praise,

I’ll repeat to myself the words I hope will end this admiration,

I despise how much I love you.

The Owl

                                             Between the intermission of sunlight and shadow is the eccentric owl,
              A paradoxical symbol perched on its prairie horse at the mythological rodeo,
                        Adorned with a grim grimace and stoic gaze,
                                     Embracing and embodying wisdom,  knowledge and intellectuality conceived and perceived as 

                                   teachers or seers, per nocturnal personality,
                       Especially due to their supernatural reportage with Greek goddess Athena, in Greek Mythology Athena, the Goddess of

                                                    Wisdom, was embodied by an owl, 

                              said to have sat on her blind side to help her see the truth better, underworld harbinger of medieval spirit literature,
 they are also embodiments of death,  darkness, mystery, and
Tragedy frequently showcased in Shakespeare’s literature, notably Julius Caesar,  

                                             as omens of death or calamity,
possessing dualistic qualities of wisdom and warning hence be weary of their company that 

                                                        proffer a complex tapestry of celebratory elasticity and foreboding fraternity…
They can also be romantic allusions symbolizing solitude and introspection much like  pensive poetic bards

                                                 conjuring up missiled missives as lymphatic literary marmalades…  

Jacques Fleury is a Boston Globe featured Haitian American Poet, Educator, Author of four books and literary arts student at Harvard University online. His latest publication “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self” & other titles are available at all Boston Public Libraries, the University of Massachusetts Healey Library, University of Wyoming, Askews and Holts Library Services in the United Kingdom, The Harvard Book Store, The Grolier Poetry Bookshop, Amazon etc… He has been published in prestigious publications such as Spirit of Change Magazine, Wilderness House Literary Review, Muddy River Poetry Review, Litterateur Redefining World anthologies out of India, Poets Reading the News, the Cornell University Press anthology Class Lives: Stories from Our Economic Divide, Boston Area Small Press and Poetry Scene among others…Visit him at:  http://www.authorsden.com/jacquesfleury.–

Whispers from the Heart 

I wish to touch—just once—

your words, 

your melodies,

and all that is miraculous.

I wish to listen—just once—

with my whole consciousness,

to the heartbeat of every single letter 

you utter. 

And if you have no objection,

I wish to lift upon my fingertip

that single drop of the universe

lingering upon your lips. 

Then, if you choose to erase 

my blooming world,

I will vanish without a trace—

like the sunshine of the night… 

Those Who Depart 

Those who depart— 

do they truly dissolve into darkness, 

becoming utterly devoid of light?

Those who depart never return, 

yet they leave behind their pen, 

resting beside the throes of death.

Tucked away in the hem of a tattered 

sheet, they conceal all the strange 

wonders of their lives.

They move a little further ahead, 

even though there remains nothing left 

to look back upon.

Those who depart—in some other world, 

they fill the naked, blank 

expanse of white paper… 

Yatti sadeli 

Poet 

Dr. Bashir Issa Al-Shirawi of Qatar.

I have the opportunity to review a powerful work that portrays women as a quiet but unstoppable force. This poem is from my friend, the talented and respected poet Dr. Bashir Issa Al-Shirawi of Qatar.

The poem

By Dr. Bashir Issa Al-Shirawi:

She Who Walks with Light

She moves with time, yet time cannot hold her.  

Through dust and doubt, she gathers her strength.  

From pain, she shapes resilience.  

From hope, she kindles fire.  

She honors yesterday  

And rises stronger from every fall.  

She does not wait for the dawn—  

She carries the light within  

And creates tomorrow  

With every brave step. 

****

Poetry Review: 

“She Who Walks with Light” 

Dr. Bashir Issa Al-Shirawi of Qatar.

Review 

By Yatti Sadeli

⚘️This poem is a portrait of a woman as a quiet but unstoppable force. 

In 10 lines, the poet successfully encapsulates an inner journey from wound to fire, from falling to creating tomorrow. 

The title “She Who Walks with Light” can be read two ways: she walks with the light, or she walks as the light. 

The line “carries the light within” emphasizes the latter. The light is not borrowed from the dawn; it is innate, which she chooses to keep burning. 

Conclusion “She Who Walks with Light” is a short, powerful poem. It doesn’t lament the darkness, it doesn’t glorify the wound, it doesn’t wait for a savior. It notes: a woman who makes peace with her fall and chooses to light herself will always be one step ahead of time. 

Each line feels like an affirmation that can be taped to a mirror—not to be read once, but to be remembered whenever doubts arise.