Ranjana Sharan Sinha

 

THROUGH THE LENS OF CREATIVITY AND HOPE

 

For the last year's words belong to last year's language and next year's words await another voice.

                     --- T.S. Eliot

Before we raise the glasses and wait for the fireworks explode into the sky in a fury of light, our minds are assailed with umpteen questions-- what is going to happen in the new year, how to cope with drastic changes and the like. The New Year 2022 begins today with the world still reeling from the pandemic, shattered and sundered amidst old fears, new uncertainties and challenges. Pandemic may drag on deep into 2022, but it seems to be entering  the endemic phase, meaning it will continue to circulate in the population but in a more predictable and less severe way. With time, the disease could even become similar to routine illness, such as the flu and common cold, experts say. Moreover, we have learned from 2021 by living through it and this year armed with new vaccines, we will be in a better position to conquer those challenges-- we HOPE to win.

The natural world is a paradox of predictability and chaos. So many events happen in clockwise fashion, while others do not. Hurricanes, tsunamis, fire, lightning, weeds, plagues and storms are as much part of life as the predictable rising of the sun and moon. However, these chaotic events in nature are not static. Just like the challenges in our personal and collective lives, they come and go at seemingly random times. What we need is hope and creativity to sustain ourselves during a barrage of crises.

Any creative act, whether it is successful or not, will lead to a flood of dopamine, the feel- good chemical in your brain and that will lead to a sense of happiness and accomplishment. The Vedas, the ancient texts, celebrate life, offering a sense of optimism and hope; they in fact, negate negation and pessimism. Like rain on a drought- ridden desert, hope refreshes your life and brings you lasting peace. So, pick up one thing that interests you, or inspires and motivates you as creativity allows us the time to go deeper in ourselves to our core and results in human reflection.

Epidemics and pandemics have ravaged humanity throughout it's existence and have doomed whole civilisations and brought once powerful nations to their knees, killing millions. Around 430 B.C. not long after a war between Athens and Sparta began, an epidemic ravaged the people of Athens and lasted for five years. The Black Death travelled from Asia to Europe. Plague tore through Shakespeare’s London in what, until recently, felt like a pestilence- ridden era. That plague decimated the capital's population with recurrent outbreaks bringing with it the kind of draconian measures with which we've become familiar in 2020. Perhaps the best- known examples of plagues ever recorded are those referred to in the religious scriptures that serve as foundations to Abrahamic religions. Book of Exodus of the Old Testament mentions a series of ten plagues to strike the Egyptians before the Israelites, held in captivity by the Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, are finally released.

William Shakespeare wrote supposedly some of the greatest works while quarantined during the plague in the 1500s. It is believed that the Bard not only wrote King Lear during endemic of 1564, but also got a head start on Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. John Dryden also kept his creativity alive during frequent lockdowns. On the opposite end of the creativity spectrum, mathematician and physicist Sir Issac Newton's work in the late 1660s, while he was quarantined at home on account of the bubonic plague, is considered to be his best. During this period, he also discovered differential and integral calculus, formulating a theory of universal gravitation, and explored optics, experimenting with prisms and investigating light (as per a report of Hindustan Times). In fact, when death hovers over the heads of ordinary people, they suffer from the feelings of fear, sadness, worry, numbness or frustration; they can't think beyond a certain limit, but creative souls thrive in the company of lurking death. Death acts like a cerebral catalyst in their case.

Creativity is marked by heightened emotional sensitivity and creative people are not afraid to be seen as different or exhibiting unusual thoughts. Creative individuals tend to be independent and nonconformist in their thoughts and actions. Many creative people show an interest in apparent disorder, contradiction and imbalance. As playwright George Bernard Shaw sums it up," Some men see things as they are and say 'why'? I dream of things that never were and say 'why not'." Dreams and imagination are of the utmost significance.

Albert Einstein has been called the most creative genius of the last century who learned how to analyse creative ideas and examine them in his mind because he didn't have a laboratory to test  the ideas. You might not be an Einstein and might not discover the theory for relativity but you can learn from his creative thinking techniques. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world"-- these words of Einstein do not disrespect knowledge but point out that the way to move into the unknown is based more on imagination than it is on knowledge. Too often knowledge will tell you that " it can't be done", but only imagination will find and open doors that you had ignored.

 

Dr. Ranjana Sharan Sinha

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NILAVRONILL TALKING WITH ZORAN

POET OF THE MONH

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC

NILAVRONILL: Why do literature and poetry in particular interest you so much? Please give us some idea about your own perception of literature or poetry in general.

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: I believe that poets are ambassadors of peace, writing about love. And we have never needed love and peace in the world like today.

 

NILAVRONILL: How do you relate your own self existence with your literary life in one hand, and the time around you, in the other.

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: I write because I love it, if you are not an established writer or there is no sponsor behind you who pushes you, there is no financial gain. I write from the bottom of my heart, and I describe what happens to me. through my deeds

 

NILAVRONILL: Do you believe creative souls flourish more in turmoil than in peace?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: It's all a matter of the moment, but I think that creativity and some inner restlessness trigger feelings, when you feel butterflies in your stomach, the verses themselves start, or some trepidation around the heart, the verse agrees

 

NILAVRONILL: Do you think in this age of information and technology the dimensions of literature have been largely extended beyond our preconceived ideas about literature in general?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: I agree that now with all this technology and the Internet, the written word travels faster and is available to everyone, it is also available to many who are not affirmed to notice from someone. I like it well when people write, because through their writing and their thoughts I understand to have hope for this world and life in it

 

NILAVRONILL: Now, in this changing scenario we would like to know from your own life experiences as a poet, writer and a creative soul: How do you respond to this present time?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: The whole world has become an industry of stupidity and ignorance

 

NILAVRONILL: Do you believe that all writers are by and large the product of their nationality? And is this an incentive for or an obstacle against becoming a truly international writer?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: There are few writers who close themselves in a narrow circle writing only about it. Writers and poets are people of the world, ambassadors and everything they write travels the world and as such they share love

 

NILAVRONILL: Now, if we try to understand the tradition and modernism, do you think literature can play a pivotal role in it?  If so, how? Again, how can an individual writer relate himself or herself to the tradition and to modernism?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: It plays a big role, in both, but I think that classics are the most beautiful thing that has been written through poems and novels. Jesenjin is the best, and whatever modern form he is, he will be the best.

 

NILAVRONILL: Do you think literary criticism has much to do with the development of a poet and the true understanding of his or her poetry?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: I think that criticism has nothing to do with writing. Critics are taught in schools what and how and they do not go out of those formats. There are wonderful poets that critics do not like, not that they write badly but that they do not understand what they write. time

 

NILAVRONILL: Do you think society as a whole is the key factor in shaping you up as a poet, or your poetry altogether?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: That society has always had a great influence on everything, both on writers and on all artists, no matter what art they were engaged in

 

NILAVRONILL: Do you think people in general actually bother about literature?  Do you think this consumerist world is turning the average man away from serious literature?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: Yes, it is true there used to be fewer writers, but there was quality, today we go for quantity and rarely does anyone have quality.

 

NILAVRONILL: We would like to know the factors and the peoples who have influenced you immensely in the growing phase of your literary life.

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: I said a while ago that I love French classics, Russian, that is the most beautiful age of literature. I am not closed to just one nation, I write that the whole world reads and I address the whole world

 

NILAVRONILL: How would you evaluate your contemporaries and what are your aspirations for or expectation from the younger generation?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: There are a lot of good writers around me, we even have a Nobel laureate, there are a lot of young people who write and I always try to help them. They should be given the opportunity to show themselves.

 

NILAVRONILL: Humanity has suffered immensely in the past, and is still suffering around the world. We all know it well. But are you hopeful about our future?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: I do not give in to a better future, because man is the greatest animal and everything, he reaches he destroys. Maybe someday when people come who will be aware that we all have the right to live on this planet, and that we are all the same, maybe not I believe

 

NILAVRONILL: What role can literature in general play to bring a better day for every human being?

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC: It depends on the person, someone is awakened by music, someone by recitation, A matter of taste. But only by writing and spreading love do we help people feel better and happier

 

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC

 

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC

 

I Think

 

I'm thinking of something ...

Memories creak underfoot ... He smells lilac from afar, as if in a dream ...

And I fall in love again, in her eye. Everything the night wrote ..

Dan confirmed ..

You know ... I dreamed you were kissing me.

And I write indescribably

And I love the untouchable

I'm waiting unexpectedly

Sometimes I get lost in the dark

I'm waiting for morning, dawn

Nothing big

I just live ..

I just love ..

All my absent glances ... are all present feelings about you. I am so wonderfully silent and I love you in myself ....

I'm without you .. out of my mind ..

HOW TO SCRATCH ANOTHER SONG ... AND NOT JUST TO SUPPRESS THE THOUGHT IN MY HEAD ... AS I GET OLD, I ATTACK THE PAPER ... I DON'T KNOW IF THE VERSE IS TRUE ... AND EVERYTHING I CAN WRITE OF WISH ... SOME HOPED HOPES AND DREAMS ... THEY SAY THERE IS A WAY OUT I ASK WHERE IT IS .. EVERYTHING IS THE SAME ONLY THE PAPER IS NEW ..

 

When You Go

 

When you set out on a wreck

from the bottom ..

all the girls are dark ...

and at the top she is all white ..

e that took my mind ..

 

I was awakened by the smell coming from her

I smelled the love of Trebinje this morning

 

I loved the streets she walked

the place where she was sitting ..

I looked at her in a nicer way

from her mirror ....

 

She taught me that some closeness stays close even when they are somewhere very far away ...

My destiny is she and my someone ...

 

There under the lashes, in the trembling of the body, all dreamy,

the girl fell asleep, a woman woke up.

With me, everything is still budding

nothing fades ...

 

I hear an echo in my soul ... a struggle of desire and smell ...

I whisper thoughts that your wishes still smell like me ...

 

I always pray for her ..

and every prayer of mine is dedicated to her ..

that she is always happy and healthy

and I would take another walk through the bazaar

of her dreams

 

As If You Are Here

 

I'm talking to you again

again I give you all love

I'm doing everything with you again

like you're here ..

 

Me after a couple of drinks

and I tell that to everyone

That they are cold, persons are the most wonderful Beings

if you can handle them ..

 

Only you did it

to emerge from all my depths

only you knew

the true value of silence and my silences ..

 

When I start from life

to run and save myself

then I realize you're there

where I begin and where I end

 

Get tired of a lot of it in me

and again I send you all love

I send all my emotions to my beloved woman

and you are there again

 

Mahala

 

An old man is sitting in Bregovi,

he is starving his gray beard ..

Where is his love now

far away what is he doing ..

 

He has no word to speak,

he rejoices at every dawn.

Friends just to see your face

next to our Trebišnica ..

 

And when this winter passes,

when summer comes again ..

will go to the top of the karst again.

sing Bajro and my trša ...

and on his golden hand,

our Shuki will also play ...

it will be a roar again

the old paradise has gathered ...

They huddle together

my sorrow will disappear too ...

and at the end of each summer,

the old man is walking alone again ...

 

You Don't Understand

 

You don't understand anything, my love

how hard it is to live without you

happy couples to watch

and hide a tear in your eye ..

As alas says

life as Trebisnjica flows ..

take away from us everyone who is dear

God, let me just wait

to cross my threshold again ..

Some things will always hurt, but I will try to always have a good answer to them. I turn all my pain into a verse ,,, The nights come when you have to bear the burden of the whole world on your chest. There come days when you don't trust people, and you avoid them so as not to spoil your verse..I am not guilty of many things in life..There come nights when you promise yourself everything, and then come mornings when you curse that you got up alive.

You don't understand that, my dear

the sky no longer likes blue

nor swallows that nest

nor the clouds that ride in the sky ..

How many times do I come to you when I start blabbering..How many times do I meet you when I walk inside ... Then I am no longer surprised by everything..because I see you in everything.

You don't understand ..

 

ZORAN RADOSAVLJEVIC

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

 

 

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

 

The Arctic

 

A ray is born in the heart of darkness

to penetrate the landscape

with the sun's light

and cut the transparent chill.

 

Everything is different here

Fresh water turned to a stone

is drifting in huge patches on the sea

Delicate snowflakes clump into the mountains,

and a whirlwind breaks the deathly silence.

 

The world of white has different shades

- streaks of blue and green pulsate

It is a beautiful and terrifying landscape

Man is forbidden here,

but curiosity tells him to open up

the gateway to an icy hell

 

Poems On The Lake Ohrid

 

Three shades of blue – mists, mountains and sky

fell softly into the water in a wide cascade.

The fishing boats were lying lazily

on the yellow sand of a nearby beach

- gazing at golden reflections glistening

on the smooth surface of the lake

 

It  was  a beautiful day - full of sunshine and love

There were roses and the wind hid in the flowers,

to listen to the silence interrupted

with the carefree laughter of playing children.

The old people sat down on the park benches

- they were similar to birds tired after a long flight

 

In the odeon,  as in ancient times,

the subtle music of the words sounded.

Here we were,  the wanderers from distant lands

- we spoke with all the languages of the world

and we felt the common speech of poetry

 

The differences are gone.

In our veins,

in the same rhythm drops of blood throbbed,

calmness settled in our minds.

Against the world, full of wars and hatred,

we built a new tower of Babel

to climb above the walls and touch the azure sky.

 

Festival of poetry, North Macedonia 2021

 

Lime Tree

 

yesterday

it greeted me outside the window

today it disappeared

- cut into pieces

 

someone is converting wood into cubes

somebody  else is cutting the branches

and I am crying

 

I will not hug the trunk tomorrow

and I will find no relief

in the shade of its leaves

 

a friend died

- mine and the local birds

 

ALICJA MARIA KUBERSKA

ALINA ANNA KUBERSKA

 

ALINA ANNA KUBERSKA

 

It's Best To Dry The Sad Time With A Smile

 

rainy tears

I will turn into pearls

will conjure a smile

on a pensive face

autumn mist

I will shroud in hope

 

november time of nostalgia

I will replace with thoughts of you

I will snuggle into the warmth of the fireplace

 

I will perceive the tear-filled world

 in a different manner

 

Life Is A Carousel

 

as a child, she lived whirling in the rush of innocence

she swirled the adulthood with love

unfortunately she got to the other shore too fast

in the autumn of her life, the storm brought her to the bottom of the sorrow

leaving the extinguished stars in her eyes

faith came to nothing

 

she really wanted the memory to smooth out the wrinkles

unfortunately the past was alive

searching obsessively became a madness

 

she did not find the missed chance

she cannot live either

 

Let's Become Collectors

Of Moments Of Happiness

 

she

was afraid that like Icarus she would fail

because she allowed him to be audacious

 

he

tactfully created closeness

was a great director of the moments

 

she

wanted him to embroider on her body

a delicate pattern that cannot be unraveled

 

he

gave her his wings

so she could finally fly

before melancholy takes over her soul

 

ALINA ANNA KUBERSKA

 

ALINA ANNA KUBERSKA comes from Aleksandrów Łódzki, but lives in Łódź for her entire adult life. She has published six volumes of poetry, two novels and short stories. Her poetry can be found, inter alia, in Anthologies, Almanacs, Quarterly Poetry ... Meetings with her poetry took place not only in Poland but also in London, Birmingham and Vilnius. For five years she was the owner of an international poetry portal. He is the vice president of the Association of Polish Authors in Warsaw and the Sochaczew literary evenings Atut. This year, she received the Diploma of the Minister of Culture for artistic achievements and many years of passion and commitment to promoting culture.

 

ANA MARÍA MANUEL ROSA

 

ANA MARÍA MANUEL ROSA

 

Envy Between Progress And Future

 

Cry the soul when it overflows you

Sadness, hard work, effort and you

Are filled with the envy of those

That they cultivate and preserve it.

How treasure they live on envy,

How incapable they are. These look and

They watch, criticize and sit waiting

See what happens and what happens next.

But what they don't know is that the future

It will not reach them because it will be criticizing.

It won't come to them because they weave and

Unravel the future that comes to others.

Those others who criticize are coming

In sufficient quantity success and progress.

His lips say, destroy and elaborate

Inaccurate conclusions wanting to harm.

How much damage do they do with their degrading words?

In order to destroy the other that doesn’t bother them.

How many times the one who works was misjudged and the

One that produces in his/her daily labor or in his/her work?

How judged without thinking that the one who does,

The one who study, he who creates, he who writes

Truths with his metaphorical resources applying his

Art done poetry; or maybe made a novel... it just does?

He does writing those fantastic stories, or those

Real stories that happened in other times; ... or

What do I know! Probably writes his memoirs

Or it could be art in general teaching science.

But that person who did so much damage; today is

Unknown none of it because, it stayed in the past tense

Looking and criticizing. Because he had nothing to do

And being impotent; he wanted to destroy that being of light.

Of course, an envious person looks like a stone in

A shoe; that does not progress and pretending that the other

Person did not show off his work. What was known it is

That; meanwhile, the maker got the success so well deserved.

After so many tears shed, before so much adversity

Produced with intention; and while the creator

Worked the way of progress and future it emerged

With success and achievements as deserved as rewards.

A fair prize won for perseverance, for work, for effort

And will to achieve the goal of work successfully

Completed. It is just that each which gets what

He really deserves based on overcoming.

 

Feat Of Peace, Freedom And Humanity

 

The white pearls in the oysters so pearly and

Pure they reflect the sky so celestial; how clean

The child's soul as unscathed as an angel.

The snake hidden in the stubble; how

Treacherous crawls in search of her terrified

Hidden prey almost invisible, creeping and perverse.

The heart beats pouring and spilling life and

Being here and now so latent; like the sun

Enlighten human beings and likewise that

The nectar of freedom throbs integrating

With peace and humanity lighting minds

In people staying on planet Earth.

Sighs and hopes for freedom, peace and

Humanity inside people's hearts oppressed

With the weight of the mighty tyrant giant.

It is gestating in the world march for rights and

Freedoms; just like the tilled land where a seed

Germinated is cared with love by the hands of man.

 

Living Nature... Still Life

 

Living nature... still life... How badly

Treated planet Earth is! How bad

Nature has done to be human for;

That he aware to unconscious

Is destroying the flora, the fauna,

The orography, the hydrography!

Why man and why science...? Why

Are dirty and harmful people who

Despise nature, beauty and the

Paradise of the vegetation of the beautiful

Nature and natural life of animals of

So varied wild and wild species?

Horror… rivers and seas with plastic garbage

Used because to people find it easier than

Pick them up to leave them in a safe place.

Ditches and city places with useless remains from

Homes fleeing so as not to be discovered how

Crime for; not taking responsibility for his remains.

Manufacturing establishments developing

Diversity civilization utilities; with process

Waste processing taken without necessary

Collections disposal for; home collection as

Poisons spilled indiscriminately contaminating

Pure water for drinking, the air and for everyday life.

Why do we destroy nature... that what

do we need to live, breathe and enjoy...?

Why do we destroy what gives us happiness

If; any day off we look for nature to relax

And rest from stress, from work and from

Everyday life... from the hustle and bustle?

 

ANA MARÍA MANUEL ROSA

 

Dr. ANA MARÍA MANUEL ROSA, born in the city of San Rafael in the province of Mendoza (Argentina), is a Bromatologist received at the National University of Cuyo in Argentina, Professor of English as a Second Language received in California USA, Tutor in Virtual Environments received at ITU Technological University Institute from UNCUYO in Argentina, Research and report writing technician (UNCUYO); Project Advisor and Evaluator (DGE General Direction of Schools of Mendoza province), Literary Corrector received in Madrid Spain, Editor and Writer. The famous writer, novelist, poet, short story writer, researcher, historian and international speaker Ana María Manuel Rosa has three Doctors Honoris Cause, too is Master Honoris Cause. She has the Recognition of the Medal of the Order of Cervantes and the Recognition of the Medal of Kairat Duissenov; she is an Honorary Member of the International Arts Council (IAC); Honorary Member of the Latin American Poets Club; Member of CIESART 2017105433-AR; Honorary Member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Tarija; Latin American Lady of Poetry; Director of the Mendoza Delegation of the North American Academy of International Modern Literature ANLMI Argentine Republic Chapter from 11-18-2020 to 04-27-2021; Recognition of the Academy of the Government of Gujarat India for Argentina within 350 writers and poets of the world from 80 countries in 2020 and in 2021 too among 440 writers; Peace Love Member of International Human Rights Organization IHRO; Universal Ambassador of Peace from Universal Circle of Peace Ambassadors (France-Swiss); Universal Ambassador of Culture; Literature Ambassador; International Ambassador for Creativity and Humanity; Cultural Ambassador for the World in Argentina of CIESART; Women Ambassador Sunflower Culture of Equity; Humanitarian Ambassador; Ambassador of  Access to Human Rights International AHRI; Cultural Ambassador of INNER CHILD PRESS of Washington USA for Argentina and South America and International Ambassador of Peace of World Literary Forum for Peace and Human Rights WLFPHR. She has recently been appointed with the position of Executive Director of Cohesion Cultural Projects: History, Poetry, Arts, Food Science, Education and Creation; Narrative, Biodiversity, Multidisciplinary Gender Equality of the International Sunflower Women and Men Network in Mendoza (Argentina) 2021-2022. A position she resigned on 10-04-2021 for being too busy with her own personal projects, which demand a lot of her time. Too she is General Director of Social Assignments of CIESART of Barcelona Spain.