Vollmann’s Poor People slightly altered Soot covered woman of the burned land, Madagascar Homeless camp under the freeway, Miami People and streetscapes, Riverton, Oregon Office cleaning lady just off work with Colonel Sanders (life-sized statue) Bangkok “I think they are poor” venerable white-haired man begging, Beijing Congolese beggar boy, dressed in filthy rags Unknown street sleepers Man in rubble of destroyed home Man with photo and deed to his destroyed home Garbage lady, Nanking Panorama of box houses, Tokyo Beggar in full body burqa like an angel of death, Yemen Streetwalker in burqa approaching a rickshaw, Peshawar Homeless man reading a newspaper in park, Tokyo Three drunks, Nome, Alaska Beggar girl with deformed nose Beggar pretending to be armless, Bangkok Family in front of their bullet pocked house, Congo Snarling beggar, Bogotá Man with crooked face, Bogota “Donate here to get me out of your neighborhood” placard, Oregon Afghan boys playing in wrecked Soviet plane, Afghanistan Afternoon on Ave de la Mort, Brazzaville Operation Crossroads 1948: Bikinis, a journal, extracted As culled from the journals of forward observer Of Bikini Island tests, Dr. David Bradley, in his book , NO PLACE TO HIDE “In the three years of the “atomic age,” five bombs (or is it six?) have been exploded. On only these last two or three have men been prepared to study and record the findings under anything like controlled conditions.” “This morning the surface (of the ocean) was scattered over with tiny floating jellyfish, or baby men-o-wars. Delicate, diaphanous creatures, they look like blown cherry blossoms on a windy lawn of the Pacific.” “By the nature of our work almost everything we know is potentially dangerous.” “Actually, of course, there will never be any great control of ideas concerned with atomic energy, the principles have already spread like an epidemic.” “Lectures on physics have given way to the practical business of the detection of radioactivity.” “It will be difficult to convince people of the dangers of radiation.” “The persistent power of the bomb after it has exploded is its greatest menace.” “They(the old and wise) doze a moment in the sun and wake up on fire.” Sante’s Evidence “Traces of innumerable human beings lost to history once and for all, without monuments or descendants or living record.” “A copy of a Black Hand threat letter, decorated with obscene drawings.” “An enigmatic set of shots, from various angels of a man’s right hand with two thumbs.” “Magnified views of pieces of jewelry and barely decipherable snapshots.” “Studies of urinals at different (police) station houses.” “Locations: bedrooms, bars, back alleys, vacant lots, storerooms, hovels hallways” “You do not have to be glamorous to meet a violent end.” “Objects of interest, at least momentarily, taken together, they become stills from a film, a nightmare, ride from room to room in the small hours.” “These subjects are constantly in the process towards obliteration.” “These photographs-as evidence, they are mere artless records, concerned with the details…they are the book- keeping entries, with no transfiguring mission, and serve death.” “We are breaking a taboo as old as the practice of shutting the eyes of cadavers and weighing down their lids.” “Photography like death, interrupts life.” “The more empty the photograph, the more it will imply horror.” “Empty photographs have no reason to be except to show that which cannot be shown.” “Evidence is a magnet for the random.” “You do not have to be glamorous to meet a violent end.” Julia Solis’ New York Underground: the Anatomy of a City, in text and photographs with occasional commentary Inside the Croton Aqueduct (like The Thing from Outer Space) Roots (like veins) inside the long-abandoned Croton Aqueduct Rebuilding the foundation of 7 World Trade Center A manhole cover leading to a branch of Croton Aqueduct (like a portal to the outer circles of hell) Sealed water pipes to a branch of Ridgewood Reservoir with graffiti, Brooklyn The gate chamber on the Bronx side of High Bridge (with standing water and garbage) Inside a storm drain Queens Ghost Stations: City Hall station abandoned retaining some of its former glory Abandoned 91st street station with elaborate graffiti Sealed staircase lower-level City Hall station Remnant of obsolete trolley station Essex and Delancy Long abandoned Croton Aqueduct well on its way to being reclaimed by nature Virginal track segment, never used Ghostly staircase eastern end of Lexington Ave. station Ground Zero October 2001 Long after last transport, a gurney in a tunnel, Seaview Hospital Mattresses piled in deteriorating heaps in basement of a mental hospital Obsolete freight track, Hell’s Kitchen Long forgotten abandoned burial crypts The central aisle of the crypt of St. Patrick’s cathedral A Plague of Souls: Contemporary (Mostly) Japanese Noir Devotion of Suspect X Tokyo Nights Hotel Lucky Seven Sleeping Dragon All She Was Worth In the Miso Soup Coin Locker Baby The Devil’s Flute Slow Fuse Three Assassins Bullet Train Crossfire Grotesque Real World Out Winter Sleep Almost Transparent Blue The Memory Police Village of Eight Graves Freud On Aphasia Interpretation of Dreams Secret Memories The Future of Illusion The Ego and the ID Jokes and Their Relationship to the Unconscious The Psychology of Everyday Life “Civilized” Sexual Morality and Modern Illness The Most Prevalent Form of Degradation of Erotic Life Mourning and Melancholy Civilization and Its Discontents Beyond the Pleasure Principle Medusa’s Head Totem and Taboo: Resemblances between the psychic lives of savages and neurotics Reflections on War and Death A Case of Paranoia Running Counter to the Psychic Analytic theory of disease Case Studies: Dora Little Hans Rat Man Wolfman Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious Brutal (Soviet) Bloc Post Cards “Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas? Joseph Stalin Monument to Builders of the Volga Power Station 1967 Worker and Collective Farm Women (statues) circa 1960’s (Literal) Flower of Life (concrete sculpture) 1968 Monument to the Conquerors of Near Universe 1988 Monument to the Conquerors of Space (glass ellipse) 1964 A Special Sign at the entrance to the city, Brest, (indescribable) 1987 Memory of Military Glory, Moldavia 1983 Karl Marx Monument, Tashkent, 1980 (Flyaway concrete hair) Kulpenberg TV Tower (“beehive” on concrete tower) Avala TV Tower, Belgrade (pointed as a needle) Slovak Tower Building, Bratislava 1983 (inverted pyramid) Brotherly Mound, Hillock of Fraternity Memorial Complex, Bulgaria 1980 Museum of the revolution, Lithuania SSR 1980 Obelisk of Glory, Modavic, 1972 Concrete arch known as Andropov’s Ears, Tbilisi, Georgia 1983 Museum to the Defenders of the Caucasian Mountain Passes, 1983 (Concrete henges rising) Monuments to the heroic Sailors of the Black Sea, 1971 All-Terrain Vehicle Monument to the Pioneers 1987 Broken Ring Monument, Lake Lagoda, 1966 Monument to the Communists Who Died in September 1923 Uprising, Bulgaria Alyosha Monument to the Defenders of the Soviet Arctic, Murmansk, 1986 Armenian Genocide Memorial Cemetery Complex 1967 The Sash of Glory, Odessa 1975 (glorious silhouette carved From concrete) The Constinesti Obelisk-Constinesti Beach, 1970 (White Polished marblesque, whatever on the beach front) Star Monument Kharkiv, Ukraine 1975 Monument to the executed partisans, Yugoslavia Arch of Diversity, monument dedicated to the unification Of the USSR and Ukraine 1982
Essay from MD. Rizwan Islam (Talha)
-MD. Rizwan Islam (Talha)
My Mother
My mother’s name is Mst. Roksana Yesmin. She is 35 years old. She is a M.A. She teaches in a primary school in Dinajpur. After school hours she works at home. She cooks our food. She also looks after my old grandmother and my little sister. She takes care of our health and studies. On holiday, she cooks special dishes for us. She washes the clothes. She keeps the house clean. Sometimes she goes to the market. She also visits relatives. She helps the sick people. In the evening, she watches TV. She spends her free time with us. She remains busy the whole week. No person in the world is like my mother.
So, I love my mother very much.
MD. Rizwan Islam (Talha) is a student of grade six in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.
Poetry from Md Easa Hossain (Subas)
Memories
Where are the days lost?
Going, memories of golden days.
The happy times are disappearing,
I remember the old memories.
The times of sitting together,
And chatting are changing.
How time has passed today,
I have grown up
One of the eternal truths of the world is that,
Life is beautiful if you adapt yourself to each moment.
Md. Easa Hossain (subas) is a student of grade nine in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.
Poetry from Wazed Abdullah
The Sky The sky is blue, so wide and high, With clouds that float and birds that fly. At dawn it glows, at night it's deep, Stars come out as we fall asleep. The sun climbs up, then slides away, The moon and stars begin their play. The sky above is always there, A part of life, beyond compare. Wazed Abdullah is a student of grade nine in Harimohan Government High School, Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh.
Story from Nosirova Gavhar
Loyalty - Hello - Hello, how are you? - I am fine thank you very much. I thought I would call you in the evening. I congratulate you on your birthday. Happy eighteen years. - Oh, thank you. When will you come back? Matchmakers are coming to our house. - You know I’m on a business trip now. I will leave as soon as I finish my work. Can you promise to wait for me? - Understood. It’s been twenty years since she said, «Ok, I promise to wait for you.» The woman’s eyes were still staring at the misty distance of the long endless road. The young man had a car accident while returning from a trip and left this world already. 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», «Juntosporlasletras» of Argentina, «2DSA Global Community». Winner of the «Korablznaniy» and «TalentyRossii» 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, «KayvaKishor», «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.
Poetry from Faleeha Hassan
A goat in a cup of tequila Like a mother of a soldier who is scared of military mail that can disturb her on a quiet night My heart keeps shaking from the moment you were gone I lost my secret satisfaction With whom will I talk now about my neighbors’ missing cat? Who will believe me but you? When I say a hungry squirrel’s eyes, only look like a hungry squirrel's eyes? Who cares about the travail of words that embodied the trembling of the fingers that stuck this goat into the bottom of this cup? With whom she will share her pent-up screams While she -without ears -stands in a cold glass void? And before all of that, Who can accept a drink of tequila in a cup with a goat standing inside it other than you? Faleeha Hassan is a poet, teacher, editor, writer, and playwright born in Najaf, Iraq, in 1967, who now lives in the United States. Faleeha was the first woman to write poetry for children in Iraq. She received her master's degree in Arabic literature, and has now published 26 books, her poems have been translated into English, Turkmen, Bosnian, Indian, French, Italian, German, Kurdish, Spain, Korean, Greek, Serbia, Albanian, Pakistani, Romanian, Malayalam, Chinese, ODIA, Nepali and Macedonian language. She is a Pulitzer Prize Nominee for 2018, and a Pushcart Prize Nominee for 2019. She's a member of the International Writers and Artists Association. Winner of the Women of Excellence Inspiration award from SJ magazine 2020, and the Winner of the Grand Jury Award (the Sahitto International Award for Literature 2021). She served on the Women of Excellence selection committees for 2023, was a winner of a Women In The Arts award in 2023 and a Member of Who's Who in America 2023. She's on the Sahitto Award's judging panel for 2023 and a cultural ambassador between Iraq and the US.
Poetry from Mahbub Alam
The Pick of Love A way goes through the bushes The light with colorful glow reflects All the way it spreads the roses The green smiles and the flowery grasses A dream of love welcomes here Beats the heart charming everywhere We celebrate our joy hand in hand Get lost with the bliss of Gaia’s pad Here dances all the mount’s pick The faces blush in the sun’s kiss The clouds hug the pyramid’s pace Call me to be in touch of the world’s grace. Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh, 16 June, 2024. 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 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 being published in Synchronized Chaos for seven years.