Not Crying Baby

Under the rubble, the collapse of the wall,
Sits a three-year not crying kid,
In the screaming hell,
Like a wild beast from the sky,
Among the layers of exploding roofs.
With the stroke of eyelashes
Blood drops in the eye,
Sliding on the check.
Small hand silently rubbing the eyelid,
Palm red spots for the first time.
Stepmother- war mixes with the dust
Mop of chestnut hair tenderness.
Splinters dug into the snow white feet.
My angel, what are your faults?
Well, at least cry, baby,
I’m no longer able
To look into your innocent eyes.
You are my clean world,
You are more than all!
So you lived

I have died a hundred times!



Nigar Nurulla Khalilova is a poet, novelist, translator from Azerbaijan, Baku city, currently living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. She is a member of the Azerbaijan Writers Union. Nigar N. Khalilova graduated from Azerbaijan Medical university, and holds a Ph.D degree. She has been published in books, literary magazines, anthologies and newspapers in Azerbaijan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the USA over the years. 

Nigar N. Khalilova participated in poetry festivals and was published in international poetry festivals anthologies and in the Austin International Poetry Festival (AIPF), 2016-2017.

After forty years of snow

Do you remember the watch you gave to me wrapped in a poem?
It is still bound to my soul's meaning
The more time passes
The more the letters jump into my heart artery
My heart is now pumping flirtation
How many times I have wished
That if my city were not surrounded by graves
Then like a little girl 
I would wait for you in a secret garden
Come on!
Take off this thick absence
As thick as a New Jersey coat in the winter time
Melt off the snow that has stacked on the lines of your messages
Mow the grass that has grown on your tongue
Don’t save a sea of tears for me
I am not a mermaid
Make yourself present with words
Woo me
Let me stop demanding my rights
And thrive by the touch of your fingers as they play with my hair
Let me fool myself again
And see you as center of my universe.
………………………………..
 
 
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. 

She received a Pulitzer Prize Nomination in 2018, and a PushCart Prize Nomination in 2019. She's a member of the International Writers and Artists Association, a winner of the Women of Excellence Inspiration award from SJ magazine 2020, and a winner of the Grand Jury Award (the Sahitto International Award for Literature 2021) and one of the Women of Excellence selection committee members for 2023. 

She's also a winner of a Women in the Arts award for 2023, a member of Whos’ Who in America 2023, and a Sahitto Award judging panel member for 2023. She's a cultural ambassador between Iraq and the USA. Email: d.fh88@yahoo.com

Life

Life is like the hot season sweating the body 
And burning the green 
Life is like the rainy day’s lilies on the quiet lake
Or on the starry flowers journey the day’s moment
As if the dream the lightening feather
Life is like the birds flapping and chirping in the morning 
Saying ‘Good Bye’ to the darkness of the night
As if the world awakens with its new beauty and color 
Of the red crabs in the sea beach

Life is like the love’s dream
Lost in the other world staring the glimpse 
Life is nothing but a count of sorrows and sufferings
Sewing a lot of inner meaning 
Like the designed bed cover we lie to sleep
Life is nothing but a span of time
Talks to us so many things
Standing before to face the new challenges

Life is running so fast to meet the charm
Life is a drop of water
We seek at the time of thirst
Life finds out the glory with the life we love
Life rounds in always in love
Though life causes sometimes so many deaths in this earth.

Chapainawabganj, Bangladesh,
28 May, 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, and zines. 

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 an Synchronized Chaos International Magazine for seven years.  

Calling you, People! 

What do we see when we look through a telescope? 
The solar system rotates in its own rhythm in the sky. 
High mountains, dense forests, deep rivers, seas, 
The address has not changed, it has remained in place. 
The living world obeys the Creator's rule, 
What has changed the character of people? 
Long forgotten is the code of humanity, 
Enthusiasm for robotization is increasing at high speed! 

Wealth is accumulated, justice is trampled upon, 
Extortion, looting, then distribution of aid. 
A newborn baby is ashamed of its arrival, 
Maybe it's time to wake up and become perfect 
Let's unite in one action to save the world! 
Like Tesla's wireless "Wordencliff Tower" we 
Let's spread the light, the lights of mercy! 
Let's give all the pure emotional feelings. 

Elmaya Jabbarova was born in Azerbaijan. She is a poet, writer, reciter, and translator. Her poems were published in the regional newspapers «Shargin sesi», «Ziya», «Hekari», literary collections «Turan», «Karabakh is Azerbaijan!», «Zafar», «Buta», foreign Anthologies «Silk Road Arabian Nights», «Nano poem for Africa», «Juntos por las Letras 1;2», «Kafiye.net» in Turkey, in the African's CAJ magazine, Bangladesh's Red Times magazine, «Prodigy Published» magazine. She performed her poems live on Bangladesh Uddan TV, at the II Spain Book Fair 1ra Feria Virtual del Libro Panama, Bolivia, Uruguay, France, Portugal, USA.

Beyond the Mirror of Imagination 

In the mirror, through your eyes, 
You observe me 
You call me 
You hide 
You love 
You squint to forget 
To make everything stop 
The water in the mill doesn't stop 
It turns, 
Life flows like a river 
I am constantly reborn in your eyes 
Beneath the eyelids 
Love with which you cover another love. 
But forgetting happens when the mirror breaks, 
But our mirror is reborn when you look at yourself 
And see my eyes in your reflection. 
That is us, connected by thoughts 
Without encounters 
Without touch 
Without anything, 
But everything in the fullness of feeling 
Through the connection of the soul. 


Maja Milojković was born in 1975 in Zaječar, Serbia.
She is a person to whom from an early age, Leonardo da Vinci's statement "Painting is poetry that can be seen, and poetry is painting that can be heard" is circulating through the blood.

That's why she started to use feathers and a brush and began to reveal the world and herself to them.
As a poet, she is represented in numerous domestic and foreign literary newspapers, anthologies and electronic media, and some of her poems can be found on YouTube.

Many of her poems have been translated into English, Hungarian, Bengali and Bulgarian due to the need of foreign readers.
She is the recipient of many international awards.
"Trees of Desire" is her second collection of poems in preparation, which is preceded by the book of poems "Moon Circle". 
She is a member of the International Society of Writers and Artists "Mountain Views" in Montenegro, and she also is a member of the Poetry club "Area Felix" in Serbia.

Meeting
 
In vain tonight, my tendency will reach your limits
Your image rushes to the safe appointment of my forehead
I feel your presence more constant 
The syllables of your name are poured reluctantly 
Through my sleepless lips, hurting the stillness of the air, 
So that you sprout in my arms... 
But the time for the meeting has not yet arrived for us.

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 which have earned international literary awards. 

She works as the World Manager of Educational and Social Projects, of the Hispanic World Union of Writers, UHE World Honorary President of the same institution, Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers, Commissioner of Honor in the executive cabinet of the Educational and Social Relations Division of the UNACCC South America - Argentina Chapter. 

Tiger Stripes

knowledge gained in school
books read besides the pool
experience thorns and wool
stripes worn survive all cool

character from times abhor
soft heart born times adore
conviction in times of lore
hear a lone tiger as it roar

wisdom from complexity
serenity born of adversity
perseverance in severity
feel a lone tiger's flexibility

life is a jungle full of mystery
yet a circle of unending story
tiger needs its stripes to survive, 
but it is his roar and flexibility that keeps him alive.


To Arms

More often than not, 
It is those who have not seen war
That would shout in his top voice
To Arms! To Arms! To War's Glory!

For a true soldier,
Who has crawled in bloody field
Who has kissed Death's cold lips
Knows of Hell and all it is about

Call not a scarred veteran coward,
When he fears to raise up his gun
When he seeks for a compromise
When he would hold down his pride

To Arms! To Arms!
Guts and brains to nourish farms
Fool's gold the paupers charms
Arrogant Alpha the pack harms

Yet when storm comes
Iron thunders and acid fogs
Who faces Death with sad smile
Who hides in metal room down?

Woe to soldiers true
Who fights so cowards may live
Whose children are orphaned poor
To Arms! To Arms!

Lilian Dipasupil Kunimasa was born January 14, 1965, in Manila Philippines. She has worked as a retired Language Instructor, interpreter, caregiver, secretary, product promotion employee, and private therapeutic masseur. Her works have been published as poems and short story anthologies in several language translations for e-magazines, monthly magazines, and books; poems for cause anthologies in a Zimbabwean newspaper; a feature article in a Philippine newspaper; and had her works posted on different poetry web and blog sites. She has been writing poems since childhood but started on Facebook only in 2014. For her, Poetry is life and life is poetry. 

Lilian Kunimasa considers herself a student/teacher with the duty to learn, inspire, guide, and motivate others to contribute to changing what is seen as normal into a better world than when she steps into it. She has always considered life as an endless journey, searching for new goals, and challenges and how she can in small ways make a difference in every path she takes. She sees humanity as one family where each one must support the other and considers poets as a voice for Truth in pursuit of Equality and proper Stewardship of nature despite the hindrances of distorted information and traditions.