The sound of love
Excitement beats in my heart,
A stormy wind blows in my heart,
I was waiting for your face
The prostration of my lustful eyes, my love.
My heart aches with tender longing,
I am ashamed to write in secret from everyone,
I whisper to mountains and stones,
The most mysterious word in my language is my beloved.
The caravan of dreams has lost its way,
He put the lasso on the ropes,
He screamed silently,
The unknowing loss of my heart, my love.
Unforgettable day of first love,
Even though you are far away, you have loyalty
Written love, fate,
A gift of divine power my love.
Elmaya Jabbarova was born in Azerbaijan. She is poet, writer, reciter, 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.
WOMEN
A shining sphere emerges
Flags moved by a breath
It comes from the roots,
From that wind with which we were born,
There in paradise
Perfect crowning for our geometry,
Adamantine, constellated, urgent
More tenacious than anger
Woman who breaks like a mirror
Against the heart of an invisible sun,
And you bloom chewing the tide...
So satiated with dreams that there is no art more tender than yours
Shadows, abandonments, and prodigious love
They form your grace.
Harmonious, flexible, firm woman,
With silences followed by pure acts
Today I revere what I am…WE ARE.
WOMEN
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.
She's the UHE World Honorary President of the same institution Activa de la Sade, Argentine Society of Writers. Commissioner of honor in the executive cabinet IN THE EDUCATIONAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONS DIVISION, of the UNACCC SOUTH AMERICA ARGENTINA CHAPTER.
The Town Fool
Bob never stays at home
He never wanted to be alone
In the street corner with lively tone,
Dancing with pointed hat like a gnome
You have odd jobs you want to be done,
And your lazy hubby's out of town
Just call Bob, he will not let you down
Don't give Bob money, or he'll be gone
Bob loves cookies and hot chocolate,
Surely your groceries won't be late!
Once a stranger used it as a bait,
And poor Bob met a violent fate
The whole town went into great uproar
No one believed, for Bob, such horror
Stranger caught, he's seriously beaten
Even judge didn't think twas bad thing
Why the fury? He's just the town fool.
Getting all worked up, they're just ain't cool!
Bob may seem to you just a fool,
But he's well-loved by all the people
Women Empowerment
W isdom gathered through blood and tears
O bligations done with loving smiles not fears
M arriage is a bonus and not a necessity
E ngaging in any desired opportunity
N urturing the family, society, human community
E nvironmental awareness for rehabilitation
M otherhood deserves honor and protection
P eace and prosperity is her deepest ambition
O utspoken yet meekness of the soul makes sense
W omen encompass the balance of existence
E nvisioned future without its chaotic norms
R ejuvenate nature in its realistic forms
M en can be stronger with women as equals
E mpowered without barbaric rituals
N ations will have survival chance to course
T ruth be told, women can be your salvation or curse.
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.
I Am She
I am She, the ageless feminine;
Bringer of life via the veins of time and blood;
I am the midwife of celestial birth;
The ears of humanity’s soul songs;
The conscience of all who breathe and speak.
I am the life force of spirit and flame;
The bringer of knowledge through error;
Through waves of anguish and tears.
I am the moist lips on the act of procreation.
I am She, the joy of creation’s repetition;
The steadfast reaching for perfection
And the holy quest of all that is beauty.
Give to me your tears, your laughter,
Your creations, your brightness of spirit.
Place your love-flowers on my soul’s altar;
Share with me all that brings joy or sorrow.
I am She, Mother of a puling universe;
Everlasting as the light of the sun;
As the moon swelling tides of the mind.
I am She, the ageless feminine;
Bringer of life via the veins of time and blood.
How Do I Express Such Love
Deeper than darkest darkness;
Higher than heavenly light;
Love that is true is boundless;
A carefree, uncharted highway
Leading to completeness in life.
The soft-spoken words of love
Are more soul-swelling lovely
Than the notes of a golden harp
Or the trills of a crystal flute
Echoing from love’s symphonies;
Skipping gaily over time’s promises;
Fading in gales of forever-afters.
I see you in my wildest dreams;
I hear your footfalls in the halls
Of all the empty house loneliness
That ever haunted my yearning.
Your love whispers on the wind,
Fill my ears with expectations
And dreams of love’s tomorrows.
How do I express such love for you?
Annie Johnson is 84 years old. She is Shawnee Native American. She has published two, six hundred-page novels and six books of poetry. Annie has won several poetry awards from world poetry organizations including; World Union of Poets; she is a member of World Nations Writers Union; has received the World Institute for Peace award; the World Laureate of Literature from World Nations Writers Union and The William Shakespeare Poetry Award. She received a Certificate and Medal in recognition of the highest literature from International Literary Union for the year 2020, from Ayad Al Baldawi, President of the International Literary Union. She has three children, two grandchildren, and two sons-in-law. Annie played a flute in the Butler University Symphony. She still plays her flute.
Special Place
There's a special place in Hell, for me.
Its streets are built on misery
And paved with agony.
Now I've tried to live free of sin
But life was a game I could never win.
I tried to gain Heaven's love, but all in vain
For I was already struck by the Devil's bane;
Forever my ball and chain.
I would find no retreat
For on the day I was born I met defeat.
He rejoiced as he knew a righteous soul;
Sold for a simple lump of coal
Would forever pay the toll.
And he would not wait
Until I stood at his infernal gate.
He brought it to me in my crib
And would never loosen the grip.
So began the trip.
The curse placed upon my infant bed
Builds that special place when I'm dead.
From Southwestern Michigan, Jerry Langdon has lived in Germany since the early 90's. He is an Artist and Poet. His works bathe in a darker side of emotion and fantasy. He has released five books of poetry titled "Temperate Darkness" and "Behind the Twilight Veil", “Death and other cold things” “Rollercoaster Heart” and “Frosted Dreams” Jerry is also the editor and publisher of the literary magazine Raven Cage Zine poetry and prose. His poetic inspirations are derived from poets such as Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Frost and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. As well as from various Rock Bands. His apparently twisted mind, twists and intertwines fantasy with reality.
Death, My Confirmed Guest
Death, my confirmed guest,
Very often I forget you
You must come to take me
To the land of infinity.
I should have to adorn myself
With flowers of good deeds
To receive you freshly and happily.
But l have spent time in vain
For nothingness in the wrong track
I do not know when you will come
But it is constantly true that you must come
Everyone can break promise except you
You do not cheat with time
No one can stop you.
In Clive Gresswell’s Shadow Reel, fragments of thought seep through consciousness like a shadow of a film documenting our waking existence.
Like our background internal monologues, there are no chapters or verses, only thoughts of varying lengths. Yet, the ideas connect loosely to one another, with a word or phrase in one fragment often echoing something in the next. For example, on page 28, we read “map gold. etchings to the emergency rooms. elegies of doubt.” Gold is an element in fine artistry, etchings are a type of visual art, and an elegy can be written for someone who did not make it home from the emergency room.
Some words and ideas are recurring, such as “tomato,” mentioned 62 times in the manuscript, “blue” a little over 30 times, and “metalanguage” used 33 times. Metalanguage would be words about words, a commentary on the experience or nature of reading and writing. So perhaps Shadow Reel brings us a glimpse of what comes after we read, how we meditate on certain thoughts or images after we see or hear them, when we continue to process them at a level beyond literal meaning.
The book also carries a distinctly British sensibility, with mentions of Liverpool, Birmingham, the Chancellor, and the moors. It’s grounded in a culture, if not a specific address.
The language is relatively complex and Gresswell uses literary devices such as alliteration: “a conglomerate of cheerless conservatives” (page 33) and “the pale puce of his postulation” (page 31) and varies syntax so that the book sounds like an experimental composition. He follows e.e. cummings’ style of avoiding initial capitals while still using periods, letting the individual fragments of thought loosely flow into one another.
Readers can imagine Shadow Reel intoned in a crackly bass radio voice, with an emergent rhythm that seems to arise spontaneously and never becomes monotonous due to the variety of sentence lengths. It’s a voyage worth taking into the unconscious.
