Ten Haiku by Taghrid Bou Merhi

[In English and Arabic]

1. The whisper of rain

awoke a warmth in the night,

a pulse of longing.

1. همسَ المطرُ

أيقظَ في الليلِ دفئًا

نبضُ الحنين.

2. On my windowpane,

the rain carved messages

from the heart of clouds.

2. على نافذتي

نقشَ المطرُ رسائلَ

من قلبِ الغيم.

3. The earth's fragrance

fills the chest of evening,

rains of longing.

3. رائحةُ الأرضِ

تغمرُ صدرَ المساءِ

أمطارُ شوق.

4. The footsteps of rain

caress the path’s stones,

a dance of love.

4. خطواتُ المطرِ

تداعبُ أحجارَ الدربِ

رقصةُ حب.

5. The dawn breeze

whispers in the river’s ear,

a dream of light.

5. نسيمُ الفجرِ

يهمسُ في أذنِ النهرِ،

حلمُ ضوء.

6. The sunset’s shadows

paint on the sea’s face

a sigh of farewell.

6. ظلالُ الغروبِ

ترسمُ على وجهِ البحرِ

أنينَ الوداع.

7. Autumn leaves

scatter in the wind’s silence,

a dialogue of fading.

7. أوراقُ الخريفِ

تتناثرُ في صمتِ الريحِ،

حوارُ زوال.

8. The moon’s glow

lights the window of night,

the secret of darkness.

8. وهجُ القمرِ

يضيءُ نافذةَ الليلِ،

سرُّ العتمة.

9. The whisper of clouds

quenches the hills’ thirst,

a promise of rain.

9. همسُ الغيمِ

يروي ظمأَ التلالِ،

وعدُ المطر.

10. The jasmine’s scent

wanders through the alleys,

a fleeting memory.

10. عطرُ الياسمينِ

يتسللُ بينَ الأزقّةِ،

ذكرى عابرة.

- TAGHRID BOU MERHI 

(Foz do Iguaçu - Paraná - Brazil)

Email: taghrid240@gmail.com

Taghrid Bou Merhi is a Lebanese-Brazilian poet, writer, journalist, editor, essayist, and translator fluent in multiple languages. She writes poetry, prose, children’s stories, critical studies, haiku, and short stories. She teaches Arabic to non-native speakers and works as a developmental trainer at the Sawa Development Association. She holds a law degree and serves as editor and head of translation for eight Arabic magazines. She also leads translation into Portuguese and Italian for Translators Without Borders and heads the translation department at Azahar Poetic magazine in Spain.

Taghrid is the President of the International Chamber of Writers and Artists (CIESART) in Lebanon and an advisor for the Sham Land Books Platform and the World Union of Arab Intellectuals. She represents Brazil in the international literary association Creative (Germany) and serves as a global poetry advisor for CCTV in China. In 2024, she was named among the 50 Most Influential Asian Women in Modern Literature and one of the Top 20 Global Journalists by Legacy Crown.

She has received numerous international awards, including the Nizar Sartawi International Creativity Award (2021), Naji Naaman Literary Award (2023), and the Zheng Xin International Poetry Award (Beijing, 2022 & 2023). Her works, studied by literary critics, have been translated into 48 languages. She has authored 23 books, translated 42, written 112 articles, presented 44 books, and contributed to over 210 national and international anthologies.

Three Micropoems by Zdenka Mlinar

HOPE

February and March
with the face of a woman...
Spring awakens,
giving birth to light,
new life, and HOPE.

BELIEF

With a carnival celebration,
we send winter off
and drive away the evil from the town.
A tradition of belief,
for healing and comfort.

PRAYER

Forest nymphs
call for spring,
folding their hands
and praying for health
for Mother Earth.
They seek faith in disbelief.

- Zdenka Mlinar
Zagreb, Croatia 

Zdenka Mlinar lives and creates in Velika Gorica and Zagreb, writing poetry, prose, reviews, and short texts (miniature lyrics, aphorisms, haiku, etc.). She has published eleven solo poetry collections and is a member of several literary societies and associations. She writes in the Croatian standard language, English, and occasionally ventures into writing in Croatian dialects. Her work is included in the Lexicon of Contemporary Writers from Velika Gorica (2006) and the Turopolje Lexicon (2021). Her works have been published in more than 200 domestic and international anthologies, collections, and journals. For her work, she has received numerous awards, recognitions, commendations, acknowledgments, trophies, and medals.

Her haiku poems are featured in the bilingual anthology of Croatian haiku poetry "Unmown Sky 2" (2008–2018), in the New Anthology "Contemporary Croatian Haiku" (2023), in "Kajkavski Haiku," an anthology of Croatian haiku poetry in the Kajkavian dialect (1977–2023), as well as in two World Gogyoshi anthologies. She is listed in the world register of The Haiku Foundation and has been among the TOP 100 haiku poets in Europe for six consecutive years.

She is proud of her appointments as an ambassador of peace by the Italian Cultural Association "VerbumlandiArt" and the European Institute for Roma Studies and Research, as well as the Association of Roma Writers in Belgrade.
Her three trilingual haiku poetry books are housed in the Croatian Language Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, the Croatian Embassy in Tokyo, and the Japanese Embassy in Croatia. She has also participated in projects such as the creation of the "Hyperpoem," which is included in the Guinness Book of Records, and the Anthem of World Poetry. She is a literary editor and founder of the Zagreb Literary Club "Ilija Kozić Ladin" and the Facebook group of the same name, through which, in honor of the great Croatian and Bosnian poet, she organizes poetry events with her members. Her poems have been translated into several foreign languages, and some have even been set to music. She is also an active participant in many art colonies and other humanitarian engagements.

EPIMILLIGRAMME, a Micropoem by Ivan Pozzoni

You don't have to put yourself in color if you look at your name,
you know, I'll make you immortal in "portrait d'anonyme".
My ink cuts better than a bowl of hemlock:
without anyone knowing your fame has evolved.
- Ivan Pozzoni 
Italy 

Ivan Pozzoni was born in Monza in 1976. He introduced Law and Literature in Italy and the publication of essays on Italian philosophers and on the ethics and juridical theory of the ancient world; He collaborated with several Italian and international magazines. Between 2007 and 2018, different versions of the books were published: Underground and Riserva Indiana, with A&B Editrice, Versi Introversi, Mostri, Galata morente, Carmina non dant damen, Scarti di magazzino, Here the Austrians are more severe than the Bourbons, Cherchez the troika. et The Invective Disease with Limina Mentis,Lame da rasoi, with Joker, Il Guastatore, with Cleup, Patroclo non deve morire, with deComporre Edizioni and Kolektivne NSEAE, with Divinafollia. He was the founder and director of the literary magazine Il Guastatore – «neon»-avant-garde notebooks; he was the founder and director of the literary magazine L'Arrivista; he is the editor and chef of the international philosophical magazine Información Filosófica; he is, or has been, creator of the series Esprit (Limina Mentis), Nidaba (Gilgamesh Edizioni) and Fuzzy (deComporre). It contains a fortnight of autogérées socialistes edition houses. He wrote 150 volumes, wrote 1000 essays, founded an avant-garde movement (NéoN-avant-gardisme, approved by Zygmunt Bauman), with a millier of movements, and wrote an Anti-manifesto NéoN-Avant-gardiste. This is mentioned in the main university manuals of literature history, philosophical history and in the main volumes of literary criticism. His book La malattia invettiva wins Raduga, mention of the critique of Montano et Strega. He is included in the Atlas of contemporary Italian poets of the University of Bologne and figures à plusieurs reprized in the great international literature review of Gradiva. His verses are translated into 25 languages. In 2024, after six years of total retrait of academic studies, he return to the Italian artistic world and melts the NSEAE Kolektivne (New socio/ethno/aesthetic anthropology) [https://kolektivnenseae.wordpress.com/]

Time, a Micropoem by Farzaneh Dorri

Time is now
comes and goes
through the years of the future
The spirals of the years run
I embrace the day today
Tomorrow is another day!

- Farzaneh Dorri
Iran/Denmark

Farzaneh Dorri was born in Iran, and lives in Copenhagen. She has worked as employment advisor and case manager in municipalities of Vestegn county in the last 17 years. Her poetry has appeared in Italian, American, Albanian, and Arabic Magazines. She considers poetry as a fine art and creative process, that contribute to the community of humanity. She translates poetry into Persian and Danish.

Three Micropoems by Eva Petropoulou Lianou

Love,
Every day we celebrate
Love is energy
Love you
Love me
Love all the world!
□

Love
We need to understand ourselves
Educate ourselves
What is love
Air
Fire
Woman
Passion
A hand to hand
A hug
Two people looking the sky
With same dream!
□

Love 
Everyday
We are grateful
God is love
God is his gift
Open your hearts and receive!

© Eva Petropoulou Lianou 
Athens, Greece 
eviepara@yahoo.fr

Three Micropoems by Laskiaf Amortegui

LOVES
Strawberry Loves, Lemon Loves
Fleeting loves, Eternal loves
Beloved star of the south...
Tell me where my heart must go.
□

BREEZE
Your kisses taste like a cool summer breeze
And my hair dances as it brushes your cheeks.
Kiss after kiss, the summer breeze ruffles our hair.

COMPLICES
My eyes are lost in the poppy.
Your eyes in mine.
My hands caress it.
Your hands desire accomplices, they don't resist.

- LASKIAF AMORTEGUI
COLOMBIA



Laskiaf Amortegui: is a poet, narrative writer, radio broadcaster, translator and editor of poetry, voice-over poetry and booktrailers. Author of the novel ‘La Jaula De Las Mariposas’, which tells the story of five women and their environment. It is one of the best-selling works of its genre on Amazon. When it comes to writing, she faces her rival: dyslexia. It was her mentor who encouraged her to publish her lyrics, which have brought her many accolades, several awards and prizes at international level in poetry, narrative and presentation. Most of her writings have been translated and published in other languages. Literature and her family are her great loves. You can find her on social networks as: Laskiaf Amortegui on Facebook and Laskiaf_escritora on Instagram.

RARE FLOWER, a Micropoem by Angela Kosta

Lost
In vain I searched for a flower
That it had your sweet scent i came back empty-handed
And while I've seen you sleep
Spellbound
I understood that nothing and no one
Not even a rare flower, it would compare to your beauty
To your irresistible freshness.

- Angela Kosta 
Albania & Italy
(Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter)

Angela Kosta was born in Albania but has lived in Italy since 1995. She is Executive Director of the Magazines: MIRIADE, NUANCES ON THE PANORAMIC CANVAS, BRIDGES OF LITERATURE, journalist, poet, essayist, publisher, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter. He has published 26 books and received many awards. His poems have been translated into 40 languages and published all over the world.