The World of Love, a Poem by Md. Sadiqur Rahman

Let us establish a government of love on planet Earth.
Let's remove barbed wire fences from the borders of all countries.
Let's draw a map of one country in the heart of the whole world, which is called love.

That country's flag will be shaped like a human heart.
The name of the Legislative Assembly will be love cottage.
Then, there will be no police outposts, army camps, prisons, weapons factories in that country.
Let's make a stop war, selfishness cruelty,
they will be prohibited.
Litigation, mediation of land deeds will not be necessary.
Except for gold and silver, all metal coins and paper bills will no longer be needed.
The necessary transactions will be in the currency of love.  The Central Bank will be called Love
Backup company.
There will be schools, colleges, universities, just.
The curriculum will be love  sympathy
elementary to graduate.
All higher education graduation certificates will have equality between people written on them.
Factories Industries Commerce Agriculture, will be run by automatic machines of love, with love.
Flowers, crops, vegetables will be cultivated with love.
The whole load
The raw material of love
it will be produced out of love. There will be no crisis with import-export problems.
State income tax Value added tax will be paid for charitable purposes.
Weddings, birthdays, festivals, events will all be celebrated with love.
Houses, roads, bridges, canals, waterways, bus stands, railway stations, airports will be made of durable loving brick, stone and cement. You can make improvements and traffic jams, road, rail, sea and air accidents will stop happening, only with the power of love.
In the processions of the assembly, meeting speeches about love will be given, greetings of love will be spoken with affection.  Sports, culture and entertainment will be practiced in the name of love. Treatments in hospitals will be injections of love, not drugs, Recipes will be written in words of love.
Epidemics, diseases, mourning... All will be cured only with love.
There will be no opposition parties in a country, the righteous loving republic, loving people, initiated in the religion of love will be in the administrative power of the government.
□

© Md. Sadiqur Rahman 
Rumen, Bangladesh

Two Poems by Irma Kurti

My Seasons

You see that lovely house on the hill
that has appeared like a giant mushroom?
I would like us to take refuge there,
far from this mad, chaotic world.

You’ll cover my body with flowers,
you’ll desire me in every white petal,
you’ll caress me just like the breeze,
keeping my fragilities in your hand.

When the wind scatters the petals,
you’ll recognize my autumn at once,
my youth lost in lines and wrinkles,
the sunset of faded charms.

You see that house? It seems unreal-
the backdrop of an ancient tale.
I’d like to live there through the seasons
for a year, a month, or a single day.
□

These Are Not Leaves
 
These are not leaves that the autumn
throws on my hair, my shoulders;
they are hands greeting me today
while I drag an old and heavy suitcase
that keeps the seasons we lived together.

These are not raindrops running down
my cheeks, but tears: so limpid and clear.

These are not puddles reflecting now my
face but rivers of thoughts and reflections.

Goodbyes always hurt; they leave you
bitter in the heart, even if, somewhere
out there, a world of magic colors waits…!
□

© Irma Kurti
Bergamo, Italy
kurtial@yahoo.com

IRMA KURTI is an Albanian poet, writer, lyricist, journalist, and translator and has been writing since she was a child. She is a naturalized Italian and lives in Bergamo, Italy. All her books are dedicated to the memory of her beloved parents, Hasan Kurti and Sherife Mezini, who have supported and encouraged every step of her literary path. Kurti has won numerous literary prizes and awards in Albania, Italy, Switzerland, USA, Philippines, Lebanon and China. She was awarded the Universum Donna International Prize IX Edition 2013 for Literature and received a lifetime nomination as an Ambassador of Peace by the University of Peace, Italian Switzerland. In 2020, she became the honorary president of WikiPoesia, the encyclopedia of poetry. In 2021, she was awarded the title of Liria (Freedom) by the Italian-Albanian community in Italy.
She received the Leonardo da Vinci and Giacomo Leopardi prizes from the Chimera Arte Contemporanea Cultural Association of Lecce. The same association also honored her with the European Ambassador Award and named her the Best Poet of the Year in 2022.

She received the Grazia Deledda medal and diploma of merit from the National Committee of WikiPoesia on the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Italian poet. In 2023 she was awarded a Career Award from the Universum Academy Switzerland. She also won the prestigious 2023 Naji Naaman's literary prize for complete work. Irma Kurti is a member of the jury for several literary competitions in Italy. She is also a translator for the Ithaca Foundation in Spain. Irma Kurti has published 29 books in Albanian, 24 in Italian, 15 in English, and two in French. She has also translated 20 books by different authors, and all of her own books into Italian and English. Irma Kurti is one of the most translated and published Albanian poets. Her books have been translated and published in sixteen countries.

Two Poems by Marlene Pasini

Solstice Collapse 

Incessant rain

breaks into places of dark silence,

from the horizon

the light breaks

naked

in the fragility of the dream,

in the ungraspable it drips,

syllables slip into the void

a pregnant collapse

between artifice of shadows,

at the root

faith like a splinter in the heart,

in the painful loneliness

incomprehensible,

immeasurable

flowing

the feared helplessness

eager under the body swaying

the tearing of it,

its exhausting weight

slow sacrifice

the voice trembles

thunder in the distance

deserted summit,

salty smell on hands

tremulous desire

overflows boundaries in the darkness

Echoes and invocations break off.

 

Dusk over the fog

long rain

murmuring her constant prediction,

flooded land

conscience spills dim

in the wind

moon memories flutter

in forgotten paradises

a silent firmament succumbs

and pale fear intercedes

What light will illuminate us before the passing of the shadow?

□

Incidence 

Alleys bleed their gray gloom

on roofs that mold.

 

The opacity bursts in,

funereal echo in spaces of worn material.

 

Dog night,

pack in the mouth of the suicide,

shadow of dying bodies

in the fate of abandoning him.

 

How hard it is to live

under the shadow

of this condemned world.

□

© Marlene Pasini

Mexico 

emarlene@att.net.mx

Marlene Pasini from Mexico is a communicator, writer, poet, visual artist. Psychotherapist. She has master's degree in literature, diploma in history and Egyptology and hieroglyphics. She is the author of seventeen books. She is Cultural Director of the International Forum Creativity and Humanity, Morocco, Cultural advisor of the T. Fayad, Egypt-Lebanon Cultural Forum and President of the Mexican Academy of Modern Literature, Mexico City. Participation in more than 300 virtual International Art Exhibitions Publication of her literary work in more than 100 cultural Magazines, Anthologies and interviews internationally. Translated into several languages. Permanent columnist in magazines from Mexico and India.

Awards:

Ibero-American Literature Prize by the Liderazgo Hoy A.C. Foundation, Mexico, Recognition of Mexican Letters by the Academy of Literature. First place with Certificate and medal as: International Literary Public Figure at the eleventh Crimean Literary Festival, May 2021 The Palme d'Or, San Remo, Italy, as best artist, June 2022, "Gobe the first", Award as a Woman Leader, Mexico, 2022 First place, foreign category, in the Poetry Competition in memory of the poet Terekhov, Russia, December 2022. First place, International Love Letter Contest, Escribanía Dollz Cultural Center and Library of the Anáhuac University, Mexico City, March, 2023.

The World Is for Everyone : Rifat Ismaili

For wise, tolerant people, those who understand and accept the existence of others, the earth is the Motherland of all! At a critical moment like today, where division and wars challenge life, where evil has spread its roots throughout the globe, people must be aware of the uncertain future, sound the alarm and unite in one, to oppose evil. Writers and artists must play a primary role in this battle with Evil, so that with their pen and knowledge they can accelerate the process of human awareness. The more priority and sensitivity we give to the issue we are talking about, the more vital it will be in the near future for the health of the earth globe, for guaranteeing human life, ours and our children's. Otherwise, it will be too late, and disaster is inevitable.

The question is; Can people become more aware of the irreplaceable values ​​of life? Can we understand that life is controlled by us, we are the ones who make it beautiful or prosperous, with our gestures and actions, with dedication, solidarity, respect and altruism towards others, especially towards the weaker beings of different species that populate the world, and delight us with their presence? Do you think how sad the world would be without the sun rising every morning, and a giant cloud swallowing it? Even more terrible is a nuclear weapon, which not only destroys sunlight, but everything that comes before it during and after the explosion, and hundreds of square kilometers of land are surrendered to the empire of Death and chaos. Yes, the world would be so sad if we woke up one morning and no longer found our neighbors, the voices of their children, that "good morning" given with a smile, and the invitation to live peacefully.

It would be equally sad and scary if the sky was no longer crossed by birds with their wonderful wings, the trees dried up, the waters of the rivers stopped their eternal journey to the sea. Many years ago I wrote an essay that I still find relevant today; "We never manage to learn from our mistakes and failures? How do we never manage to be more aware, kinder to others and to ourselves? This is the half face of a half world. The rest, the truth, lies hidden in the dark, like an iceberg under water. It is a sick world that needs a long time to heal. The world has become scary if you are in an endless jungle of trees and wild animals, but you realize that it is just as scary if you are in the middle of the human jungle, among these huge cities, their roads, their skyscrapers, factories, advertisements, and lights. multimillion. A world with air, a still natural world I seek, but I can't find it. A world with human misery, where you don't see yourself as small, weak and insignificant, where chaos and confusion don't swallow you up. Where the machine does not do the work of man, and man in turn does not turn into a robot and calculator. Where love is not just an invented word in the dictionary, but a reality. Where life doesn't turn into a walled prison that breaks mugs everywhere you go, but a bright field where you can run free and redeemed, where the energies you carry don't harm anyone, where you learn to live alone with it necessary, and you have no reason to violate, oppress, harm, and upset the balance of the world to satisfy a sick, temporary ego. "

So, let's take a look and look life in the eye, it is not the way it should be, instead of angry children we should see and feel the fate of thousands of children who are killed by bombs in a merciless war, often for whims of some madmen who have money and power. We must see with pain those mothers who fail to provide daily food for themselves and their children, and we help them, the mistreatment of women, the elderly and innocent people, and find ourselves at the right moment to extend a hand peace and hope. We must see with the eyes of the soul all the evils of this world and prevent them with the power of our voice and pen, with the strength of reason and progress, in the name of goodness and continuation of life.

- RIFAT ISMAILI  - ITALY 

Ndue Dragusha - Angela Kosta/ The New Constellation

Among the Creative Talent in the World

[Ndue Dragusha]

The city and its people have an exemplary and patriotic culture and traditions. 

One of these elbasans, who are making history, with a very large cultural baggage, around the world, is also the writer, poet, promoter, journalist, academic, literary critic, editor, Angela Kosta, who has shown rare quality values and as a wonderful poet. 

[Angela Kosta]

Man in life is always inclined to place on the values surrounding something of his life, from his feelings, from his passions and from the culture of the environment in which he grew up, whose influence reflects him, because he has left traces in his culture and education in continuity. Reading the work of this writer, which translates today to almost the most important languages of our planet - Earth, we understand the depth of thought, the harmonious logical logic in the ideas it deals with, the sensitization to a limpidity (clarity) of the style and articulation of this thought in a sustained and enduring dimension of our social and individual daily life. Angela Kosta inspires vividly with her creativity in all human spirits, penetrates them and makes them experience deep love for life, but also to struggle to create a stable, livable "world", asking everyone to reflect on the negative phenomena of life. 

Born in a city like Elbasan (Albania), the city of song, the city of the First School in Albania for preparing teachers for all Albania, the poet has found the right inspiration to enter into the soul of the people and to show them that the path to peace and harmony passes first, in the soul of each,  in the love of each, in the inner world of each. So, such a woman, raised in neighboring Italy, where the traditions and culture of the Italian Renaissance, incorporated the sensitive spirit of the poet, giving her a vivid worldly trait, becoming translator, poet, writer, publisher writing in the newspaper "Calabria Live" (Italy), collaborating with the International Magazine of the World of Art and Culture "Saturno Magazine",  (Italy), translating academic articles for the Italian-Albanian newspaper "Roots", based in Rome (Italy), writing for "Alessandria Today" (Italy), for Gazeta Destinacioni (Albania), Poetry for the magazine "Literary Mediterranean" (Albania), in the newspaper "Italo - Perqasje", (Albania), is the author of the magazine Poetry "Capoverso", (Italy), author of the magazine print "Psychology", (Albania), writer, translator and editor of poets in the monthly magazine print Culture - Leterary "Orfeu", Pristina (Kosovo), author of the magazine "Obelisk", (Albania), magazine print "Nova" (Italy), associate of the newspaper "Nacional", which is distributed in Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Macedonia,  She is the author of the international magazine "Atunis", (Belgium), a contributor to the newspaper "Ciceroni", (Albania), the newspaper "Sprint News (Albania), Vice president of the League of Writers in the World in South Korea, Vice President of Writers' Organization Tamikio L Dooley in Micighan, editor of the international magazine Friendship of People, etc. 

Angela Kosta is the author of 12 books: "The Imprisoned Soul" (2003), "Forgive me" (2004), Novel "The Magic Hanger", (2007), "The Glitter Lot", poetry in favor of ONLUS Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (SLA), non-profit organization (2008), "Mother's Eyes", thriller (2011), Novel "Poor Millionaire", (2017), "Living", collection of poetry, (2018), "Beyond the Ocean", novel, (2019), "Rainbow and Little Sarah",  Fairy tale, (2020), "Book under Rubble" (2023) "The Power of the Apocalypse" (2023) Anthology with translations of 72 poets from the world: "Verse Towards continents" and soon two new books in the publication above. Angela Kosta has translated into two languages: Albanian and Italian over 150 authors, as well as volumes of poetry by some authors from Albania and Kosovo.

As we see, we have before us a talent that "The Light of Hope Shines upon Your Beloved" as a bell for our sensitivity and sensibility.

By Dragusha Ndue
Director of Journal Lissalba - Albania

The Story of a Passionate Suffering (Review of the novel of Maria Teresa Liuzzo From Italy)/ Reviewer : Giulia Calfapietro

[Novelist : Maria Teresa Liuzzo]

"I am talking, now!" seems to be a novel as many others. A narration which moves among different events, situations, but which shows also places and characters while going on. While the story develops the protagonists make experience of hundred moods, emotions, feelings towards themselves and the other inhabitants of the plot. Everything happens like in an ordinary story, involving the readers who receive the right stimulus  to express their reactions in front of the topic from the various chapters.

Then, something magic, takes place: as the writer tells the story, the emotional past in the narration changes its aspect, it transfigures and moves from an individual dimension to a universal one. The book is not simply the terrible experience of Mary, her family, her daily life, her suffering and her expectations, but it transforms into the emotional story of any child, daughter, woman, lover and writer in wherever place in the world.

[Front Cover of Novel]

Mary finishes to represent that little child who is obliged to grow up in a squalid and humanly paralyzed condition, that young daughter unable to find confidence and loyalty inside her own family, above all in the relation with her own mother, that woman in a continuous search for love as both a satisfying destination and a safe refuge from all the evil of the earth. The protagonist loses all peculiarity belonging to her physical aspect or to her behaviour in front of all situations narrated in the plot and transforms into " the human being" living a deep condition of social misery and personal refusal.

Every nuance of her feelings stands out and draws attention onto itself, expands more and more till it takes up the whole virtual space of the readers' imagination. In the end it dissolves, but only to give rise to a new emotion, as outsize as the preceding one. 

All this is possible thanks to the author's skilful manipulation of the language, enriched by a rare vocabulary, involving and sometime scaring because of its interpretative power, and decorated with laces of defleshing expressions and personal objective correlatives.

A great role in the atmosphere of the narration is given by the setting of the story that is sketched with female majesty. It's about a strange mixture of poverty which is human, relational, social, historical, too. The poorness of all the characters in the book provokes cruelty, defeat, bullying, rudeness, ignorance, but also the inadequacy in living the own existence because of an emotional sterility which generates the narrow - mindedness and the immobility of the heart. 

All the same the main keywords that go through all the story and characterize the final result about the readers' experience inside the book are love and passion. Mary loves life deeply even if it has always been for her the source of the greatest sorrow and stabbing pain. She loves life because, even in its most terrible moments, she has been able to catch its perfumed intensity made of the intimate relation with natural elements and objective beauty: flowers, birds, together with the sea, the sky, the moon, the result of God's wonderful creation, the evident proof of His charity power on human existence. Mary stands for "any Maries" able to find in the darkness of a bad living path the source of redemption, the highest meaning to the little human caducity. She can always disclose the hidden softness contained in the outlined caress of the life, even the most difficult one.

But this is also the story of a big passion which links in a strange sharing the writer and her protagonist. Writing is a strong need and a wish never completely satisfied for both. Words call other words and the smell of ink and paper is never sufficient. Writing is both the care for any sort of suffering, but it's the disease itself, too. Mary knows she can overcome the struggles and the troubles of her life thanks to writing. It gives her a sense of relief, a vague and melancholic happiness: the only effective weapon to fight against all wrongdoing. All the same writing demands energy, and provokes falls in the face of menaces. In the end of the creation process Mary feels deprived of any strength and courage to keep on going. 

Mary is conscious, as the writer is, life is not simply made of events, situations. Facts don't exist in themselves. Everything needs to be narrated. Storytelling is fundamental to tell the others about. Life cannot exist without the narration of it as arts cannot be admired without the representation of it. 

So Mary narrates the main episodes of her life underlining the emotional reactions to them. It is the indispensable process to communicate the spiritual essence of time passing. Similarly the author of this novel shows the readers her mastery in the management of the storytelling which imposes itself as the only way for herself and the readers to become an essential part of the sensitive life stream and to share instants of subjective existence transforming them into a universal spiritual meeting.

[Reviewer : Giulia Calfapietro]

Two Poems by Tasneem Hossain

Waiting

 

You have left for the unknown,

Yet I wait alone, forlorn.

Wait for you to come back, 

Come back and say ‘I love you’

 

I hear your voice whispering in my ears,

I am always near you my dear.

Your voice comes through the rustling leaves,

Flowing through the gentle breeze;

Crashing through the lightning so loud,

Moving strongly with the thunderous clouds; 

 

In the cold wintry nights,

I see you floating lazily in the mist,

wet soft moist leaves in sight;

In the sultry summer nights,

I see you dancing among the sparkling starry lights;

Your presence in the beautiful spring I smell,

In the fragrance of the colorful flowers you dwell.

 

Your presence in nature is all around,

My love for you knows no bounds.

□

Sweet Little Devil Child

 

He is my sweet little devil child.

Rages and angers on every little thing,

Shouts and scolds for small little things.

Fits of panic surround him sometime,

At the end, he is my sweet little devil child.

 

His heart pure gold,

Sometimes behaves very cold.

A man has his pride and ego,

Won’t stop, to let you talk and go,

At the end, he is my sweet little devil child.

 

Some things in his life went wrong,

Made him so bitter, yet very strong;

His eyes have the power, to not let you go,

His smile makes the room shine bright and glow.

At the end, he is my sweet little devil child.

 

Ask me why I love him so.

You would do the same, if you truly know

The façade behind that angry shadow

A man betrayed so many times.

At the end, he is my sweet little devil child.

 

I know and love the pure soft heart,

of this sweet little devil of mine.

□

© Tasneem Hossain

Director, Continuing Education Centre (CEC) 

Bangladesh 

cec.tasneem@gmail.com

Tasneem Hossain is a multi-lingual poet from Bangladesh. She is also a fiction and op-ed writer,

Translator, educator and trainer. Her publications consist of three poetry books and an article book. 

Poetry: The Pearl Necklace, Floating Feathers and Grass in Green (published inUSA). 

Article: Split and Splice. Four more books are underway.

 

Apart from her four authored books, more than 70 of her literary writings have been published in different magazines and dailies in the USA, Canada, UK, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Greece, India and Bangladesh. As an op-ed writer, she has written about 80+ op-eds in a span of 2.5 years. She runs a project named Life in lyrics, which is a literary network with no borders.

 

As a trainer, she has imparted training to more than 26,000 staff of different UN agencies, MNCs, Govt. and private organisations, NGOs and private companies. She also worked as newscaster, commentary reader, interviewer and radio presenter in radio Bangladesh for 10 years. She completed her Masters in English Language and Literature from Dhaka University and has been a faculty in CUET, Bangladesh.