I AM GROWING OLD

I glide my fingertips over the wrinkles on my face, I am growing old…

Each one depicts something

from my life

but I don’t care.

Not a single artist

could arrange them like this,

shallow, deep, smiling

they look at me from my skin.

I frown in vain,

I didn’t do it,

It’s all God’s work…

The one next to the eye that laughs,

and the one next to the lips

that changes the whole face.

I was growing old

and you danced in my chest,

becoming the most beautiful part of me…

I smiled with my soul, eyes, lips

like an actress on stage.

My wrinkles were beautiful too,

there was more and more room for you

because my skin was getting bigger…

I am growing old, I am slowly forgetting,

I know it was happiness.

I am burning

because my heart is tingling and my thoughts are black,

I AM GROWING OLD!

BIOGRAPHY

MILKA J. ŠOLAJA, born in Korenica, Republic of Croatia. Lives and works in Belgrade. She has been writing poetry since her high school days.

So far, she has published 11 independent poetry collections: “If I Were a Bird”, “Dreams in the Mirror”, “Between Reality and Sleep”, “Traces Will Remain”, “Black and White World”, “I Think Your Hands Are Yours”, “A Tear from Stone”, “I Was Born Alone” and two co-authored poetry collections: “I Dream with Verses” and “My Dreams Written in Verses”, published by “Kulture Snova” from Zagreb. 

The eleventh poetry collection “I Am This I Am” is in preparation for publication, as well as the autobiographical novel “Walking on the Edge.” She writes love, homeland, descriptive, reflective, spiritual and poetry for children, translated into English, Hungarian, Bengali, Spanish, Greek, Odia, Arabic…

Award-winning, represented in many anthologies, monographs, collections and magazines, both domestic and international. Some poems are composed. Member of: Serbian Writers’ Association, Literary and Artistic Union “Vlaho Bukovac” from Split, “Culture of Dreams” from Zagreb, Institute for Children’s Literature in Belgrade. She is also a member of several International Groups, Forums and Academies for Poetry and Literature, where she has received a large number of awards. 

To You 

As the earth thirsts for rain,  

As the sunflower longs for the sun,  

So does my soul yearn for you. 

In every drop, in every ray,  

I see your image, your gentle smile.  

Just as night has its darkness,  

So do I seek the trace of you in my heart. 

As the earth awaits spring,  

As the flower dreams of azure heights,  

My heart, like a swallow, comes to you,  

To love you through the depths of affection. 

In every breeze, I hear your whisper,  

In every leaf, I feel your breath,  

For you are my unrest, from which I suffer,  

My everything, and my eternal fear. 

As the earth thirsts for rain,  

As the sunflower longs for the sun,  

So does my soul yearn for you,  

Dreaming of you, loving you, always listening to you.

Maja Milojković was born in Zaječar, Serbia. She is the deputy editor at “Sfairos” publishing house in Belgrade, Serbia.  She is the vice-president of the association “Rtanj and Mesečev poetski krug”.  She is the author of two books: “The Circle of the Moon” and “Trees of Desire” She is the editor of the International Anthology “Rtanjski stihopevi” One of the founders of the poetry club “Area Felix” from Zaječar, Serbia and the editor of an international e-magazine for creative literature and culture “Area Felix”.

LOVING YOU SO MUCH

How to decipher love, everything is a mystery, 

it must have a value. 

The hours by your side, 

your kisses and caresses, 

that empowered me. 

With a love that isn’t feigned, 

to live loving a beloved being, 

who is my delirium. 

It’s that you managed 

to erase the sadness from my poor life

Nidia Amelia García, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a writer and an active member of Juntos por las Letras (Together for Letters). She has participated in numerous virtual events in Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Spain, Colombia, Portugal, Nigeria, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and elsewhere. She has also contributed to literary anthologies such as “Books of the Immortals” and “Anthology of the 50 Poets of the World 2022.”

Guayaquil in the afternoon

Walking one autumn afternoon,

Guayaquile, the largest capital of Ecuador,

Surrounding the beauty of shining development all around.

There is the famous river walkway,

The shops are beautifully decorated.

You will see colorful houses in this city.

The house is colored in the colorful colors of this city.

The history of industrial trade still stands today,

As a historical area.

As the main port of the country,

At the urging of trade,

As an international trade center.

If you want to see lots of iguanas,

But that city is a trip once.

West across the Guayas River,

of the gulf of Guayaquil in the pacific ocean,

As you approach, 

you will find the city of Guayaquil.

To visit the Malecon, Laspices,

Let’s go to that city.

 Date: 22.07.2026

Amb. Dr. Priyanka Neogi is from Coochbehar. She is an administrative controller of United Nations’ PAF, a librarian, a CEO of Lio Messi International Property & Land Consultancy, international literacy worker, sports & peace promoter, dancer, singer, reciter, live telecaster, writer, editor, researcher, literary journalist, host, beauty queen, international co-ordinator of the Vijay Mission of Community Welfare Foundation of India.

Two plates

And now I see you

as you go down the long corridor

and you wanted love

and you wanted to help me

because I am alone

and empty was a refrigerator

and nobody needed me

My head hurts because of me

of all ghosts

who possessed me

There was no place for you

normal and sensual.

And now I see you

as you go down the long corridor

and I want to scream

and I want to get you back

but I still close the door

because my spirit has returned

to torture me

invited

to dinner

with two plates set

and me alone…

Tanja Ajtic was born in Belgrade, Serbia. She lived and studied in Serbia. She is a poet and a writer but she is also an artist. She also deals with fine graphics. Since 2002, she lives and creates in Canada. Moved to Belgrade, Serbia 2023. Tanja Ajtic is a member of many groups and associations. In Serbia, she is a member of the prestigious Society of Writers of Belgrade. Her poems and stories have been published: two hundred collections (books), anthologies and electronic books. Her poems have been published in twelve languages.

She published a book, Outlines of Love. She participated with books and anthologies at many fairs in the world with other authors. In 2024 and 2025, Ajtic collaborated with Indian poet Sourav Sarkar on two joint poetry collections that present two works by the poet in one book. – She won second prize in Great Britain from the Serbian Library in London (2019). – She won III World Prize for Excellence ;Cesar Vallejo; 2021 in the category of artistic excellence Lima, Peru, by the World Spanish Union of Writers and International Award of Excellence; from the World Spanish Union of Writers, UHE Mexico.

She won the I International Award of Excellence “Cita Del Glateo” Antonio De Ferrariis, IX edition 2022 – Rome, Italy, a prestigious award in the group of poets for the English language (IX edition of the award for foreign poetry in English) in 2022, Rome, Italy. – Winners of Foundation Naji Naaman literary prize iz 2023; (21 st Edition), from the Republic of Lebanon, Honor Prize (for complete work) for Literary prizes 2023. Poetry for the competition was submitted in three languages: English, French and Arabic. – Winning the 2023 “Zheng Nian Cup” Literary Award – Third Prize by the Beijing Mindfulness Literature Museum, China. – Winning Third Prize, Friedrich Schiller International Literary Competition (2025). She is the winner of many awards, diplomas and certificate. She is currently writing poetry, short stories, haiku, and Gogyoshi poetry as well as freelance graphic design.

ALCHEMY OF PEACE

It is not the silence that extinguishes, but the fire that stills,

the way in which the ashes still hold the warmth of the embers.

You are the vessel where pain, poured little by little,

loses its sharp edges, becomes water that does not break.

Loss is not an abyss that swallows the light,

it is the earth turned over, deep, ready to receive.

I sowed memories like grains, not to ask for your return,

but to see what we had grow, into roots that do not die.

Here, where the river of anguish widens and slows,

I find that peace is not reaching a distant shore,

but learning to navigate even when the water moves,

taking you with me, light as the air I breathe.

We are this slow alchemy: what was, transforms,

does not disappear, changes shape, becomes part of me.

 And so, we walked together, now weightless, without farewell,

with the calm of a stone that knows how to be part of the path.

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’s 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.

What Became of Me

Your smallest word is enough—
just that little whisper,
yet it comes like a Boishakhi storm
braided with torrents of rain.

It flows in an unbroken current,
through ages beyond memory,
stirring silent uproars
deep within my chest.

Laughter and tears descend together,
like rain bending every vine,
every shrub, every tree.
Nature itself becomes
a heavenly message of grace,

finding its way
into the lightless, blind corridor.
Who is left to notice?

Across the grey horizon,
along an endless untamed trail,
someone suddenly asks,

“How have you been?”

That single sentence
casts its spell over everything.
Like the fragrance of dawn
breaking an ancient silence,

something within me—
something beyond words—
quietly becomes
something else.

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh

08  July, 2026.

Md. Mahbubul Alam is from Bangladesh. His writer name is Mahbub John in Bangladesh. He is a Senior Teacher (English) of Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh. Chapainawabganj is a district town of Bangladesh. He is an MA in English Literature from Rajshahi College under National University. He has published three books of poems in Bangla. He writes mainly poems but other branches of literature such as prose, article, essay etc. also have been published in national and local newspapers, magazines, little magazines. He has achieved three times the Best Teacher Certificate and Crest in National Education Week in the District Wise Competition in Chapainawabganj District. He has gained many literary awards from home and abroad. His English writings have been published in Synchronized Chaos for seven years.

Once when he was in grade ten in 1990, his Bangla letter was selected as the best one from Deutsche Welle, Germany Radio that broadcast Bangla news for the Banglalee people. And he was given 50 Dutch Mark as his award. They would ask letters from the listeners to the news in Bangla and select one letter for the best one in every month.     

From 17 to 30 September, in 2018 he received a higher training in teaching English language in Kasetsart University of Thailand for secondary level students through a government order from education ministry. 

On 06 November 2015 he achieved Amjad Ali Mondal Medal for his contribution in education field by a development organization in the conference and felicitation function for the honorable personalities at Rajshahi College Auditorium. 

On 30 December 2017 from West Bengal in India he was declared a ‘Literary Charioteer’ in Bangobandhu Literary and World Bango Conference and they awarded him with a Gold Medal in their International Literary Conference and Prize Giving Ceremony.

In 2018, he achieved Prodipto Lirerary Award in Prodipto Literary Conference at Kesorhat, Rajshahi for poems in Bangla literature. He received honorary crest from the administration of Chapainawabganj District Literary Conference and Cultural Function in 2021 and 2022 consecutively. 

His poems have been published in many international online magazines such as Juntos Por las L Raven Cage Zine, and Area Felix.  His poems have been translated and published in Argentine and Serbian, and he participated in many international online cultural meetings.