You Are Mine a Poem by Md. Sadikur Rahman Rumen

you are my morning

The hour before sunrise

You are in the desert

I have a water canal.

you are my afternoon

Cool shade in the hot sun

Fan wind on tired body

Enchantment in the corner of the eye.

Sweet sunny afternoon

Team up and play

Evening star in the evening

Moonlight at night.

A warm blanket for winter days

Love's caress in bed

Lap pillow while sleeping

Gentle massage if it hurts.

- Md. Sadikur Rahman Rumen

Bangladesh 

Another Sunrise, a Poem by Tasneem Hossain

I lie in bed; my heart feebly beats. 

Nurses, doctors run around 

covered in masks and shields not a moment of peace. 

Behind the closed door my beloved sleeps. 

We lay there fifteen days or more, 

covered with oxygen masks gasping to breathe. 

Now I lie here, she on the other side, 

I knocked on death's door to let me in, 

trade my place and let my beloved live. 

Deaths’ angel ignored my plea. 

She lies hanging on a cliff 

ready to fly to an unknown destiny. 

Raindrops drizzle down my cheeks, 

filled with remorse and grief. 

Cobwebs in my head like empty vessels, 

echo the drumbeats of marching bands. 

Sounds of tinnitus shrieking bells, 

screech through my ear with flames. 

The myriads of color grow hazier now: 

only pitch black and gleaming white. 

Far in the darkness, shining fireflies; 

starlit carpet from moon spreads to welcome the bride. 

Calm tranquility reigns in moonlight; 

tomorrow there will be another sunrise.

Author: Tasneem Hossain 

Bangladesh

MARIA TERESA LIUZZO AND HER NOVEL ''…AND NOW I'M TALKING!''

[Maria Teresa Liuzzo]

[Astrit Lulushi]

BY ASTRIT LULUSHI (Writer – Poet – Literary and Art Critic – Historical Essayist – Journalist of ''LA VOCE DELL'AMERICA'' - First Editor of the international culture magazine LE MUSE (Italy)

The novel E ADESSO PARLO! first of the famous and successful trilogy by the well-known writer in Italy and around the world, Maria Teresa Liuzzo, proposed for nomination for the Nobel Prize for Literature, is added to the foreign books in Albanian. The book tells of a life of suffering and domestic violence that has as its protagonist a little girl from southern Italy. Her name is Mary and she represents all the girls who are victims of such molestations wherever they are and during their lives. The nightmare of this tortuous and criminal treatment - pedophilia is a crime against humanity - is tattooed on her body as well as in her mind, like the branding of an animal. Mary decides to tell the world, despite the threats she has suffered, what really happens inside the domestic walls at the mercy of beasts and ogres under the eyes of complacent wives and mothers. The victim of the novel in order not to succumb to the continuous physical and moral torture and not to die, invents a life. The one she would have wanted, and from the ''cell'' where her jailers confined her, she managed to create an artificial paradise and even a love. She kept ''well preserved for herself only the flower of that rocky journey...''. Perhaps death spared her to force her to live a thousand more deaths. Maria Teresa Liuzzo dedicates this book to her son Davide, whom she loved even before he was born. ''He was in fact the light of her eyes, her only reason for living''; therefore, from the mother's womb that inseparable bond with the child is created, even before he faces the world, and even beyond. This wonderful human and spiritual bond is not just a sensation, but an osmosis of soul, body and blood! Davide participated unconsciously and actively in her life. He lived, an unaware and innocent spectator, as in a dramatic film all the phases of that horrible and shameful tragedy. An indispensable companion in a thousand difficulties, he observed under the microscope - like a scientist the cancer cell imagining a miracle drug that could defeat that invasive evil that leads to certain death, if not treated immediately. Mary is sure that without her David she would never have described these monstrosities and therefore, this novel would never have been born. She would not have had the strength to write it... because writing means reliving that cursed past. The book is part of the Classic Psychological Works that speak of painful memories, but also of courage, redemption, salvation "beyond the holy denunciation". The arrival of the novel "And now I speak!" in Albania is also an aid for the treatment of similar traumas in the Albanian world that even today is not far and different from "that world" experienced and described by the protagonist. The text is recommended for all ages. The novel published by TIRANA TIMES, will soon be exhibited in bookstores.

Eight Modern Haiku by Jennifer Gurney

new lids and rings
on thrift-store jars of jam
story of my life

***

strawberries on sale
how can I resist
another batch

***

stirring
waiting for the berries to bubble
nothing to do but think

***

there’s a lot more
think time when making jam
than I remember

***

stirring jam 
steam fills the kitchen–
my thoughts float to you

***

stirring in steam
batch by batch
hot summer day

***

windows open
letting the steam out
the day floats in

***

such satisfaction
in putting up summer
for wintertime


© Jennifer Gurney
Broomfield, Colorado, US
jennifer.gurney@bvsd.org


Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry has appeared in a variety of journals, including Micropoetry Cosmos Blog, The Ravens Perch, HaikUniverse, Haiku Corner, Cold Moon Journal, Scarlet Dragonfly and The Haiku Foundation.

Scars, a Poem by Donna McCabe

My scars have become precious 
They are proof of how much 
I've overcome and survived.

© Donna McCabe

South Wales, UK

donna_salisbury@sky.com

Donna McCabe is an established poet from South Wales, UK, with over twenty years experience. Her work has gained her multiple accolades within her field of literature. From being published in journals, magazines and anthologies both nationally and internationally, she is also a respected admin on many social media pages as well as having her own Instagram page and poetry page.

Instagram- @donnamccabe_

Facebook- Poemsbydonnamccabe

The Paradox of Noble Prize

- Angela Kosta 

Recently we are often encountering articles and publications on various portals, of several authors, who themselves are running for the prestigious Nobel Prize. This phenomenon is a significant and not right and before it is published in: portals, magazines or newspapers, it should be carefully analyzed by editors and publishers. The proposal of anyone, a university professor, literary critic, or even a well-known writer, does not constitute the announcement of the Nobel Prize candidate, as during the year, millions of authors and individuals or authors are proposed in the field of literature.

The Nobel Prize for Literature is the highest award for the greatest literary achievements by one (or several) authors within a year.

In 1895, Swedish scientist Alfred Nobel, in his will, among the five prizes to be awarded, designated a prize for literature, for that individual who creates in the field of literature, as "the best work in an ideal direction". 

The laureate (winner of this prestigious prize) is determined by the "Stockholm Academy", which later under the statute of the Nobel Foundation was designated as the Swedish Academy. According to this statute, not only literature, but also other writings, are defined, which in terms of quality of form and style have invaluable literary value. 

It was also decided and changed that the price should be given to works published during the previous year, thus expanding to "old works" if their importance had not been made transparent by that time. Candidates, by statute, must be appointed in writing by those who can do so, by February 01 of each year. According to the regulation, the right to appoint the laureate is only granted by the Swedish Academy as well as other academies, institutions and associations similar to it, based on its foundation and purpose. This is also the right of university teachers of aesthetics, literature and history. 

Always according to Wikipedia, a 1949 amendment clarifies the category of teachers: professors of literature and physiology at universities and university colleges. The right to appoint at the time was also granted to previous Nobel Prize winners as well as "Chairpersons of Associations of Authors who are representatives of literary creation in their countries". The statute also establishes the establishment of the Nobel Committee "to give their position regarding the awarding of prizes" as well as the Nobel Institute with a library that must gather a substantial collection of modern literature. 

The winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature is announced every year on October 10, 2024. The Nobel Prize for Literature was designed by Erik Lindberg. The name of the Laurates is engraved under the figures, while the text "ACAD. SUEC." It means the Swedish Academy. The prize was first awarded by Sully Prudhomme in 1901. The first Albanian writer to be nominated for this award was the national poet Gjergj Fishta. 

[By Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter]

PRAYER, a Poem by Prof. Ljiljana Samardžić

We live in days

crucial for survival

of the Human race.

The forces of Evil

set fires

across our

Only Home,

in the desire to turn it

into a blaze,

a flaming orb that wanders

until it burns out and disappears

in boundless spaces of Space.

I am not afraid of anything!

I feel that your soul

hugs me from distance,

so I calmly pray

our Creator

to forgive us all our sins

and give one more chance,

in the name of true love,

which is here still celebrated,

for the sake of our children,

who we must not leave to

Satan.

Brothers and sisters,

from the beautiful planet Earth,

Let's Pray,

without cease,

so that our

most sincere and penitential

Prayers

reach

The Almighty

and together with his power

prevail and win

the accumulated forces of Evil!

- Written and translated into English by Prof. Ljiljana Samardžić, Novi Sad, Serbia

Prof. Ljiljana Samardžić was born in Belgrade, the capital of former Yugoslavia and now the capital of Serbia. However, she spent most of her life in Sarajevo, where she completed Elementary school, finished Grammar school and graduated from English language and literature and Serbo-Croatian language at the Faculty of Philosophy. She also studied Italian language and literature along with the work as an interpreter/translator in a trade company. Besides, she attended a painting school and was very active in painting until 1992, when the war in Sarajevo broke out. During the war, she worked as an interpreter for the UN military observers and many other international organizations. When the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina ended, she left Sarajevo, worked as an interpreter in the Regional centre of the OSCE in Sokolac, the Republic of Srpska (the entity of BandH). By the end of 1998, she moved to Novi Sad, Serbia, where she lives until now. In Novi Sad she worked as an English teacher. After the retirement, she continued holding private English classes. She often translates poetry from and into English and also writes poems in both Serbian and English.