Essay from Mo’minjonova Diyora

Books are our friends

Central Asian teen girl with short black hair and brown eyes in a photo that's tilted to the right.


In our life we can meet different educated people, who read different books to achieve these successes. It is these books that made the uneducated and educated people become scientists. There are many types of books. There are also books for people with different  skills. There are many books of world literature.

Among us there are folk proverbs like: ‘a book is our friend’ and ‘a book is a source of knowledge’. Always full of valuable and useful information for us. I mostly like to read world literature. I am especially interested in the works of Shakespeare and Pushkin. I recommend it to you too. A person who reads books is never lacking. Besides, he craves knowledge in his adult life. We can use the wide opportunities given to young people to visit various libraries and read to our heart’s content. It is this books that make scientists, and we should read various magazine and articles without limiting ourselves to books.

Mo’minjonova Diyora was born in 2007, 4th September in Turakurgan. She is a student of 11th grade.

Poetry from Mykyta Ryzhykh

the birds told me
about silence
forest temple spring


***
The cut off silence of snow
You swam out of the kefir night into the dawn

I dug a hole for you and I made a coffin for you
I ghosting and brought the lonely future closer

Cracks in the air crunched loudly
Someone is sneaking someone is looking for you in the silence

Blizzard blossoms like apple tree above
And from below under the ground worms are crawling into the future

Triangular night is knocking on the back of head
And in the back of the head there is nothing except wormy posthumous tin


***
we prayed to everyone: from Jesus and Satan to Batman and the Joker
as a result: your face is now forever young

the photo on the cemetery granite slab never changes


***
grass under your feet
glass under your feet

crunch underfoot
crunch inside

Rainer Kunze's rain gardens fall
on the heads of silent stones
that we were before we were born


***
a person is born with a noose around his neck
a rope that is attached to god

who will wash us in the rain without a home
who will wash our feet like in ancient times

one cheek for a hit, one cheek for suicide
and somewhere between the cheeks there are eyes 
that slid down from what they saw


***
torn belly herbarium
autumn leaves stick to the eyes   
future in the rain

moisture attracts worms
birds drink the silence
in  an abandoned cemetery

Short story from David Sapp

Mailbox                                                                                             

On occasion this distant memory surfaces at curious moments. I’m unsure why. However random and peculiar, I suppose the event, over fifty years ago, had some significance for my young mind. One night when I was six or seven, in my pajamas after my bath but before bedtime, close to Hop on Pop and Green Eggs and Ham, we are all in the kitchen, Mom, Dad, me. I’m eating either cereal with six teaspoons of sugar or Nestle’s Quik chocolate milk and Oreos with even more sugar. There may or may not be a brushing of teeth soon. There’s a knock at our door and there’s the neighbor kid, the Klines’ oldest teenager sheepishly apologetic, informing Dad that he just hit our mailbox with his father’s car at the end of our long, washed-out lane. I worry about getting a letter tomorrow from Patty, my girlfriend. He is opening his wallet offering to pay Dad for the damage – the few dollars he has now and the rest on payday.

Dad said later that he could have kept on going and no one would be the wiser, except maybe the father if he looked closely at the fender or grill. But he stopped and did the right thing. This made an impression upon Dad and apparently it made an impression upon me as at that age anything that would impress Dad was certain to impress me. Here was the outset of an honorable young man. Dad told him not to worry about it – to put his wallet away. The next day Dad and I went to the hardware store, bought a new box, and affixed our numbers to it. Dad showed me how to dig a post hole, setting a flat stone in the bottom so the wood would not rot, righting the post with the level, then tamping the dirt down around the base to firm it up. I used this knowledge a few times for my own mailboxes at the end of my own driveways. When I began driving, I was lucky not to destroy any mailboxes, although I do recall scraping against a city limits sign on the way to school – but there was no one handy to confess to. And fortunately, so far, none of my mailboxes have been demolished by a neighbor.

Poetry from Martha Ellen

Benzo Brain #1 *

“It’s a chemical imbalance

in the brain.”  Ad copy from

Don Draper. I bought it. An

almost mouse scampers

across the floor. A Native

woman with saucer eyes.

She’s nice. Someone in the

kitchen plays You Suffer by

Napalm Death. A firefly smiles.

Who knew? Adorable. Doc

says up dose for two weeks.

Stars in the living room. Kurt

Cobain hovers. “Hi. Miss you.”

“Mommy I can still crawl!”

Big Pharma cashes in.

2024

Essay from Rustamjonova Nodira

THERE ARE MANY STARS IN THE SKY BUT THE MOON IS THE ONLY ONE

Older Central Asian man with gray hair and a blue suit coat and tie sitting in a wooden chair.

Introduction

Uzbekistan has stepped on the threshold of progress. We have gotten rid of the unpleasant word of slavery for many years, we have gradually achieved and are achieving our rights, traditions, holidays, religion, laws, and countless wealth.

In fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, the leaders of science, i.e., the Jadids, dreamed of today’s independent country and, accordingly, used a number of unsuccessful measures several times. Fortunately, they did not stop sacrificing their lives for the freedom of the people.

During the colonial period, our great nation was under both material and spiritual shocks, i.e., it was in such darkness that the nation did not even want to believe that there was a light.

The former Soviet Union occupied many countries along with our country. But at an unexpected moment, that is, in the 80s of the 20th century, the state of the USSR began to weaken due to the inexperience of the government leaders. This is an opportunity for a number of former Soviet Union countries to gain independence.

The post of President was introduced in Uzbekistan as the first among the colonial states of the USSR. On June 20, 1990, the Declaration on the sovereignty of Uzbekistan was adopted, and on August 31, 1991, the 1st President of the Republic of Uzbekistan declared Independence Day. they say:

“From today, I propose to declare September 1 as a national holiday in our republic, the day of progress,” they cheered up all the people.

On December 29, 1991, Islam Abduganievich Karimov was elected the first president of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

In fact, they turned their chests to the responsible work of managing it as a country and put heavy burdens on their shoulders. prosperity took the father of the country away from these pains.

Of course, it should be said that the word “difficulty” is not a foreign word for a nation that is being built.  Because, in people’s minds, an evil country called the USSR, in its time, the food, clothes, and prices in the markets are as if a person who says he is poor can wait for a guest for at least 3 days in his house. left a good impression. But they tried to uproot us from our values, our thousand-year-old indelible history.  Although the Uzbek people, a great nation, were decorated with the image of slavery for many years, they could not even move the foundation of our golden values. The honorable blood of our ancestors flows in our blood, regardless of the fact that the nation has become very old and has forgotten its identity.

Dear President had the following words in this regard:

“The blood of the Uzbek nation is hot, if someone from abroad seems to speak wrongly to us, it is difficult to bring us back to our mold. Europeans living in a cold nation do not understand this. who emphasized that.

In the first years of independence, difficult days began in the life of our people. Many people have money to feed, but there is very little product, there are factories, but there are few personnel who know it, there is a lack of knowledge and skills to process the grain. There was a big turn and unprecedented changes in the life of our people. But due to many years of difficulties, we got back on our feet and became stronger. We took our country from the hands of fascism, we realized our identity, that all the blessings in the heavenly land belong only to us and not to give double help to anyone. we understood that it is necessary. In order to develop industry, economy, defense, construction, agro-technological and many other modern fields in our country, training of qualified personnel has been launched.

Our honorable President also emphasizes that “we have put the people and their interests at the center of all changes and updates in order to achieve such results in the reforms we are implementing.” If we look at the above words, achieving independence, realizing our identity, learning our history is all for ourselves, for the nation, for the youth, for our future.

Today, the main priority of us young people is that we have a responsible duty and mission to move forward on this great path, to study the heritage of our ancestors and become a generation worthy of it, to be the leaders of the time in all fields. The words of the father of Islam, “we are not less than anyone and will not be less” always ring in my ears. No one will ever forget the selfless services rendered by this person to the Uzbek nation, the white hair in his hair, the packaging in his hands, the sleepless nights he spent thinking about the peace of our country, his eyes that have lost hope and light, and his priceless life that he exchanged for the happiness of others. needed.

Islam Abduganievich Karimov ruled the Republic of Uzbekistan for 25 years. He died of stroke on September 2, 2016.

About the author

Teen Central Asian girl with brown eyes, a smile, and a dark blue headscarf decorated with white designs.

Rustamjonova Nodira Tahirjan kizi was born on December 4, 2005 in Toraqorgan district, Namangan region. Currently she is 2nd year student of Biology department, Namangan State Pedagogical Institute. She is so intelligent and determined student. In 2024, she participated in the conference “Actual problems of biology: integration of science, education and production” with an article on the topic “History of medicinal plants. Their importance in human and animal life”.

Poetry from J.D. Nelson

Five One-Line Haiku


sky grows darker sunset or storm clouds?


—

nephew’s 13th birthday whitecaps on the lake


—


red rocks pink at sunrise I wake up to check my phone


—



Memorial Day three unsharpened yellow pencils by the dumpster



—


a crow calls before six you’re early this morning


—




J. D. Nelson is the author of eleven print chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including *purgatorio* (wlovolw, 2024). His first full-length collection is *in ghostly onehead* (Post-Asemic Press, 2022). Visit his website, MadVerse.com, for more information and links to his published work. Nelson lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

Essay from Z.I. Mahmud

Samuel Beckett’s Poetic Drama Waiting for Godot

Write a critical survey of Samuel Beckett’s modern Irish theatrical drama and stage production Waiting for Godot with references to its cultural, theatrical, historical and political contexts.

(Image of two men, one seated and the other standing, with boots and coats, on a rock by a tree.)

Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a surrealist and existentialist poetic drama in the anglophone and the francophone traditions. Beckett harnessed the vogue of experimentation by breaking from the stereotypical stylistic forms of artistic expressions but considered concentrating modernism. Vaudeville comedians and archetypal clownish buffoons showcasing their popular slick routines concerning circus antics with props, pratfalls and idiosyncratic discourses bereft of substantive information. This void of meaning is implied in Estragon’s speech-act: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful!” Estragon and Vladimir are humbugs and chums passing their idyllic time together upon a somber environment that might have caused themselves to be mutated, disintegrated and superimposed. 

Allegorically Becket and Suzanne were desexualized, lackadaisical, lachrymose and lugubrious out of their wits, just waiting for the abominable genocidal holocaust concentration camps to end like the tramps wandering for Godot. Antagonism between Didi and Gogo biographically allegorizes the existentialist antagonism between the symbiotically dependent couple. Counterfeiting dualistic antagonism, Beckett underscores reciprocal friendship in sacrificial subversion of Didi’s earlier response of “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes. It’s awful!” to afterthoughts of “We always find something, eh Didi, giving us the impression that we exist.” Elemental human experience and fundamental truths of human condition concerning time and evanescence, mysteriousness of existence, the paradox of change and stability, necessity and absurdity have been brought into focus by these pauper-like tramps. 

Vladimir and Estragon are the everyman epitomizing archetypes of all humanity; with Vladimir representing the mental spirit and Estragon representing physical spirit exposed to the existentialist dilemma; ie existentialist truths potentially transforming themselves with transcended worldview and manner of living in terms of motivations, ideals, values and behaviour. Thus mind/body duality comprises this composite humanity in these tramps split into two beings with the body and the mind. Their outfits consist of old dress pants, baggy jackets, scuffed shoes and bowler hats. Vladimir is concerned with intellectualist operation upon retrospection and clairvoyance while Estragon is concerned with creature comforts such as materialistic hedonism and sensual gratification. These vagabonds are differentiated selves of a composite being: Vladimir as stalwart of despondency and Estragon as stalwart of presumption. “I’m accursed! …I’m in hell…recoils in horror”, implicates Estragon’s sinisterish hearsay of blasphemy toward the Saviour. On the contrary, Vladimir’s supplication in contextualizing the redemptive quest toward salvation is implied in “It’s Godot! At last, Gogo.  It’s Godot! We’re saved! Let’s go and meet him!”     

“All my lousy life I’ve crawled about in the mud! And you talk about the scenery! Look at this muckheap! I’ve never stirred from it!” exemplifies the admonishment of nihilistic existentialism embodied in the protagonist Estragon. The less spiritual and the less metaphysical but aesthetic containment of consciousness with the more hedonism and the more materialism. Nation and worldly realms are the domain of Judaism of Estragon waiting for the Messiah while otherworldly and extraterrestrial realms are the domain of the Christian Vladimir waiting for the Messiah. Estragon and Vladimir’s ruminations reveal the philosophizing of humankind in accord with the elusive nature of the mysterious Godot figure. In metafiction these biblical allusions are vestiges of culture corresponding to the parables of the fig tree correlating to wilting and then blooming, and the ten virgins correlating to Vladimir and Estragon’s own suspense while awaiting Godot. 

(Image of two people in black coats and black hats and collared shirts surrounding a man in a striped shirt, pants, and a vest, one on each side).

Further Reading

Biography of Beckett and Conception of Godot, Reviews of Godot in text and in production, Beckett’s friends, pp. 8-23, The friendship of Didi and Gogo in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for The friendship of Didi and Gogo in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Student Work 8-1-1994, University of Nebraska at Omaha, University of Nebraska at Omaha DigitalCommons@UNODigitalCommons@UNO 

Waiting for Godot through the lens of Christian Existentialism, Master’s Theses and Doctoral Dissertations and Graduate Capstone Projects 2007, Eastern Michigan University DigitalCommons@EMUDigitalCommons@EMU pp. 1-107