Daily Verse
Week 1, April 2025
Pure Reflections
By Mehak Varun 1st April 2025
Whispers drift through emerald canopies,
Where sunlight splinters into dappled gold,
And the wind, with its gentle, wandering hands,
Stirs the slumbering scent of earth and rain.
Leaves murmur secrets to the trembling grass,
Each blade leaning closer, as if to listen,
While moss-covered stones hum softly,
Their memories seeping into the stream’s song.
In the hush of dawn, the forest exhales—
Breathing out the echoes of a thousand springs,
Where roots once clung to yesterday’s rain,
And petals wept for fleeting summers.
Here, the green speaks in fragments,
In rustling prayers and chlorophyll sighs,
In the fleeting hush of a falling leaf,
And the linger of footsteps fading into fern.
The earth keeps no record of time,
Only the echo of it—
A soft and solemn hymn
In the verdant hush of forever.
A Human Reimagined
By Sitara Leela 3rd April 2025
She emerged out of her deep cave
Out of Kali's womb, shimmering
Into the wider spaciousness of
The ever ~ present, ever ~ moving
in rippling Saundarya Lahiri.
Transcending into a human,
she churned for years
for centuries
for lifetimes
from a grace sucking,
uroborous
Into
beauty and gentle presence.
She was a river
Mutilated, ghosted
Forgotten, a shadow
Becoming dark waters,
Tumultuous, wrath ~ fuelled.
A river that suspends itself in herself,
In her own grief,
penury,
tapas clearing
unbecoming,
a river that now flows both ways.
She is the coalescence of dark
With its light,
Of Shiva with his Shakti,
a heart wholesome and spacious.
She is the very essence of moksha,
A goddess arriving
like Monet’s pond of water lilies.
This presence, that is birthed,
In this living moment
Is one’s humanness.
Poems
By Joanna Ashwell 42nd April 2025
lighter days
the rebirth of us
in a cotton sky
pansy buds
covered in snow
early moonrise
happiness
becoming the river
of spring gold
Verdant Echoes
By Jahnavi Gogoi 6th April 2025
smiling through tears
bluebells in
the rain
whispering secrets
my sister and i
yellow daffodils
unfurling its coil
the fern too learns
to take up space
What is the Word
By Vinita Agrawal 7th April 2025
for
a pool beneath a waterfall
the shape of a bend in a river
a heart, clenched and heavy, holding rain
tomorrow‘s numbness waiting in the wings
beaten skin
bruised breaths
hollow hours
hugs contusions give themselves
days where sunlight does not reach
seeing oneself on a stranger’s bookshelf
the key that returns you home
the sound of mother humming?
Biographies of Poets
Writer, poet, an artist, Mehak Varun, is the author of four books - THE Humane Quest vol 1, 2 & 3 and & I am Me. She has been bestowed with 100 Inspiring Authors of India Award in Kolkata. She has also been honoured with the Women Of Influence 2019 award presented on women's day in New Delhi. Along with her books, her work has been published in various anthologies. She has also been certified with a course on persuasive writing and public speaking from Harvard.
Sitara Leela is a dreamwalker poet and oracular storyteller, who resides in her sanctuary in the city of Kochi, Kerala.
Joanna Ashwell is a short form poet (from the UK) who writes Haiku, Tanka, Haibun, Cherita and other related forms. She has published four collections of poetry. Between Moonlight a collection of haiku was published by Hub Editions in 2006. Her tanka collection ‘Every Star’ was published by KDP on Amazon in 2023. Her Cherita collection ‘River Lanterns’ was published by 1-2-3 Press on Amazon in 2023. She currently serves on the selection team for the Canadian Tanka Journal GUSTS.
Vinita Agrawal has authored five books of poetry, - Twilight Language (Winner of the Proverse Prize 2021), Two Full Moons (Bombaykala Books), Words Not Spoken (Brown Critique), The Longest Pleasure (Finishing Line Press) and The Silk Of Hunger (AuthorsPress), Vinita is an award winning poet, editor, translator and curator. Joint Recipient of the Rabindranath Tagore Literary Prize 2018 and winner of the Gayatri GaMarsh Memorial Award for Literary Excellence, USA, 2015. She is Poetry Editor with Usawa Literary Review. Her work has been widely published and anthologised.
Jahnavi Gogoi is a Canadian poet who spent her formative years in Assam, India.Over the years, her work has been published in various publications across the world . She writes a lot about the natural world and the beauty around her. She lives in the town of Ajax in Ontario with her family and loves to read thrillers and write poetry.
Week 2, April 2025
Universe waits for Existence
By Chitra Gopalakrishnan 8th April 2025
Green tendrils heavy with pods
Fragile and florescent
Embark with hope on rough bamboo racks
Fragrant violet flowers among velvet leaves
Wellsprings of energy
Divulge secrets of their fertility
Columns of oblong bottle gourds
Lush and languorous
Sing of an entire world’s dream
And, bumblebees foraging for pollen
Echoing blobs of black and yellow
Nectar a new universe into existence
Equinox (A Ghazal)
by Anju Kishore 1oth April 2025
They say my path is bursting with pink trumpets this March
But my heart is still beating to winter’s footsteps this March
What is it about loss that what is lost is lost again
And again denials spun me their cold, dark nets this March
The dimness of my winter has so left me groping
That all I’ve found are a handful of regrets this March
Friends walked up but hastened their pace past my house
As if struck it was by the plague not tempests this March
What do they know of prayer beads rolled from torn sails
Those who revelled in sunshine on their doorsteps this march
I chanted the name of the one blossom denied to me
Alas, Spring herself was turned away by my frets this March
Now I sit still, a flower on each of my fingertips
Watching my winter go as far as it gets this March
Why gaze at the heavens when the earth’s such a feast, they askTell them that Anjum’s been freed from seasonal debts this March
Spring in my Gait
By Sunil Kaushal 9th April 2025
“Sonth” They call the season back home.
The blooming saffron fields, sparkling landscapes,
the throbbing, pulsating earth and the verdant greenery.
Birds chirping in avian mirth, heralding a new birth.
Joyous footsteps on the trekking trails,
and majestic chinars rustling happily.
It is as if the earth has magically realized its worth.
The Zabarwan Hills play host to fluffy clouds,
smiling their infectious gold- tinted smiles.
Tulips shimmer and tourists stroll under almond trees,
which are clad in fragile white and pink finery.
As a tiny imp, I often lamented the disappearance of the snowman,
with the first hint of spring. Did it merge with the crystal clear stream?
Yay, I could see a carrot, in the stream.
Actually, its Pinocchio nose bobbing up and down,
while my little brother played the clown,
his golden hair more golden, trying to retrieve the nose.
Oops, the carrot from the stream!
Long back, while strolling with his sister,
around Glencoyne Bay in the Lake District,
Wordsworth had spied ‘a host, of golden daffodils,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.’
Not very long back, while strolling with my kid brother
near the River Lidder, I glimpsed a breathtaking scene.
Myriad hued, wildflowers swayed in vibrant queues.
I can’t say whether their dance was sprightlier
than the dance of Wordworth’s daffodils-
but it was sprightly- and it was a dance!
There was spring at my gate.
There was spring in my gait.
The Cruelest Month
By Shweta Sahai 14th April 2025
April sings an aubade
As the rude Sun divvies up
The white snow into blue rivers
Heliotropes struggle out
From the clammy clods of earth
After all that lugubrious cold
The balmy sunshine is benison
Brown trees unfurl their leaves
Like gossipers whispering canards
Into the atmosphere
Old lady winter is segueing
Smoothly into spring of youth
Travelling back through the
Byzantine paths of time
Resting in eternity
As people coddiwomple
Through the vagaries of life
Because April is ‘the cruelest month’*
I stand at the crossroads of seasons
Infatuated beyond reason
Spring
by Mridula Sharma 11th March 2025
Ah, spring!
The spring breeze
barely whispers
and the yellow brown confetti
takes the cue
It floats around
and falls in a shower
from age gnarled branches
detached and merry
On the gleaming metalled road
little leafy waves eddy up behind moving vehicles
whooping soundlessly
at their own prank—
their farewell jig
The new green
shimmers against the clear blue
squints at the sun
curiously
finger in the mouth
infantile
Mango sprays crumble
into sheer fragrance
Surrender
at the slightest hint
of a touch
Heady
with dreams
of abundance,
sweet and tangy
Little school girls —
Alyssums and pansies
Eyes crinkling in laughter
a tantalising little secret
fluttering palpably
through their huddle
as someone passes by
I watch this party play out
from where I grow
and where I remain
perennial
On my branches
thorny reminders
of resilience,
of a life lived.
I am the bougainvillea.
I know all that I can’t be
anymore
But in me
you will hear
the distinct hum of spring
As I burst forth anew
each time
Bold
Fuchsia
Stunning
Biographies of Poets
Chitra Gopalakrishnan, a New Delhi-based journalist and a social development communications consultant uses her ardour for writing, wing to wing, to break firewalls between nonfiction and fiction, narratology and psychoanalysis, marginalia and manuscript and treeism and capitalism. Author website: www.chitragopalakrishnan.com
Santosh Bakaya is a Ph.D., a poet, essayist, novelist, biographer, Tedx speaker and has authored as many as twenty-three books across different genres. She is the Winner of Reuel International Award for poetry [2014] and Setu Award for her stellar contribution to world literature [2018]. She has been acclaimed for her poetic biography of Mahatma Gandhi, Ballad of Bapu. Her biography on Martin Luther King Jr. Only in Darkness can you see the Stars has also been critically acclaimed. Her latest book is Runcible Spoons and Pea-green Boats. She pens a weekly column called Morning Meanderings in Learning and Creativity. Com.
Anju Kishore is a Pushcart (Poetry) Prize 2022 and 2024 nominee, a Touchstone Award 2023 longlister, and an award-winning editor of numerous free-verse anthologies. Her first book of poems, ‘…and I Stop to Listen’ was published in 2018 and her second book, ‘My Conversations with God, Life, and Death’ in 2025. Her poems are part of significant anthologies like Aatish 2, The Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English 2022 and 2023(Hawakal and Pippa Rann Books, UK respectively), and Late-blooming Cherries 2024 (Haiku Poetry from India, Harper Collins). She has dabbled in online theatre and is currently exploring Japanese forms of poetry.
Mridula Sharma is an erudite scholar and Associate Professor (English) at MCM DAV College Chandigarh. She is a poet and writer.
Satbir Chadha is the author of the highly acclaimed book, “For God Loves Foolish People”, for which she was awarded the Reuel International prize. Her second novel is “Betrayed, tale of a rogue surgeon”, a medical thriller. She has been published in over twenty national and international anthologies, containing poetry and short stories. She has three solo poetry collections to her credit, “Breeze”, “Glass Doors”, and the recent “The Last Lamp”. She was awarded the Litpreneur Award by Authorspress for her contribution to literature. She is also the founder of the NISSIM International Prize for Literature, awarded every year to upcoming writers of English prose and poetry.
Week 3, April 2025
Change in the Air
By Sherin Mary Zacharia 17th April 2025
From one wind’s wings to another’s
Climate tries to look pleasant.
All trees and all their flowers
Yellow hue lines the street sides
Covers the earth, gazing from below
Sun’s golden rays showered.
Day wakes up,
Travels from hot to humid
March yearns
For chilled watermelon juice
More glasses of mint lime.
Tropical forests ablaze
Seas simmer, their anguish.
Memories cool, cross over
Haze lifts, reality scorching.
Streams of sweat try to dampen
Fire within an overworked mind.
Milk curdles,
Air steams
Butter turns sour
Feeling too.
Night unfriends the fluffy blanket
Warm transforms to sultry
Suspiring , to the aircon’
Purring, cat dreams a fish
Air awaits colourful buds to bloom
slips back to cycle of joys and sorrows.
Micropoems
by Jennifer Gurney 15th April 2025
falling asleep
to the sound of rain
nature station on my phone
light diffused
bending through the universeto me, rainbow
Vivaldi's Spring
through open windows
first crocus
The Earth Also needs a Therapist
By Kashiana Singh 18th April 2025
Acorn woodpecker
shuttling between seasons
autumn equinox
black-eyed-susans hibernate.
Corpse flower
swallowed suns,
earth flaming amid a crumbling sky
collapsed utterances.
Thunderclap
a deer propels
itself into the night—
her silhouette lingers, alone.
Witch songs
are utterances entombed in rituals
northern lights
flicker between dusk and dawn.
Basket weaving
loosening the knots of excess
studying
the bird, the wind, the reed.
And the earth hums,
waiting for dawn to return,
she squats in wait for a therapist
just as we have bent in obedience to fate.
Poems
By Susan Burch, 16th April 2025
still no cure
for Alzheimer’s
watching
the oak tree
lose
all of its leaves
buying
“just 1 more pair”
of shoes
my daughter
in personal competition
with Imelda Marcos
20 More Years?
Sometimes I think my migraines are bad karma. I must deserve them somehow.
the whorls
of a galaxy
how long
must I pay for
these sins
Biographies of Poets
Jennifer Gurney lives in Colorado where she teaches, paints, writes and hikes. Her poetry has appeared internationally in a wide variety of journals, two of her poems have won international contests and one was recently turned into a choral piece for a concert. Jennifer has two books of published poetry, My Eyes Adjusting (2024) and Liquid Sky (2025). To-date, more than 1,400 of her poems have been published in just over two years.
Sherin Mary Zacharia a young poet of 21 expresses herself through her verses. She loves to write about nature most but some of her poems are on topics like mental illness and disability. She is a regular blogger (www.musingsofsher.in) and often contributes to English anthologies. She has received several awards and recognitions latest being the selection of her poem by the United Nations as part of observing World Autism Awareness Day 2023. A self-learner she likes to read, watch visual lessons and travel. Being a non speaking autistic she lets her poetry be her voice. Moonlight is her collection of poems and short prose(2017). She is a co author of Talking Fingers(2022) and Discourses on Disability (2021) Sherin is from Kochi , Kerala, India where she lives with her parents, younger sister and pet cat.
KashianaSingh (http://www.kashianasingh.com/) serves as President of the North Carolina Poetry Society, Managing Editor of Poets Reading the News, and has authored five collections of poetry. Kashiana’s TEDx talk was dedicated to her life mantra of Work as Worship. Her newest collection called Witching Hour was released with Glass Lyre Press in September 2024.
Susan Burch began writing tanka poetry in April 2013. Then haiku, senryu, haibun, gembun, tanka prose, sedoka, sedoka prose, and cherita. When she writes, she lets the poem be what wants it to be. All the poems in this book wanted to be cherita, and were kept together on purpose, as a collection. None of them were previously published. Susan was the Vice President of The Tanka Society of America from 2017- 2024. She was also the Editor of Haiku in Action from 2023-2024. Susan resides in Hagerstown, Maryland, USA, with her amazing husband, Sexy Beast, and daughter, British Baby. She enjoys reading, doing puzzles, birding, and watching Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team.
Belinda Behne grew up in the midwest, but she has spent most of her adult life in the vibrant culture of New York City. Her first career, as a teacher of special education, led her to the love of art, literature and theatre. She has pursued her passions of acting, writing poetry and performing professional voice-overs for more than three decades. She currently lives on the edge of a salt marsh, where life continues to inspire her in new ways. Her poems can be found in LEAF Journal, The Wise Owl, Scarlet Dragonfy and Cold Moon Journal.
Week 4, April 2025
Blessings of Going Green
By Sreelekha Chatterjee 21st April 2025
My old thoughts, pulsing with ebb and flow
of unending life’s kineses,
as well as my surroundings—
the multiform Nature—
toss up merrily, utterly altered.
Appearing anew along with Nature,
prelude to a world ascending—
fallow periods of winter transforming
onto flourishing neoteric existence,
the glory of the Lord that
every newly commenced living form provides.
Faith de novo when struggle purges,
suffering transmutes to healing,
death retells of life-giving.
For in every end, there is a beginning.
Amorous sillion in the fields await,
ready to accept the seeds of tomorrow.
Bathed in the brilliant luminance
are the birds soaring high and free
akin to our souls that resurrect from slumber—
hope for wondrous and beautiful hereafter.
Poems on Verdant Echoes
by Vijay Prasad 22nd April 2025
belching city i walk with green legs
her touch sets in motion the green in a leaf
touches her back a blade of grass
A Flower flew out of my hand
By Paramita Mukherjee 23rd April, 2025
Spring was in the air and nature had dressed up in green.
The banyan tree had a fresh coat of leaves.
The China Doll flowers were swaying, oh what a scene!
Parrots were vying for attention with the green leaves around.
The sparrows were searching for food in the lush green grass.
The squirrels were scampering on the trees, round and round.
In this verdant scene, the poet in me was mesmerised.
Suddenly a China Doll flower fell on my head,
I looked up at the tree surprised.
I picked up the flower with care,
The soft, pink flower so delicate and fine,
And all of a sudden, it flew out of my hand in the breezy fun fare.
I looked around at nature which was dazzling in sunshine
And looked at the flower which flew out of my hand.
How it danced and pranced in the green grass on that day divine.
Nature was rejoicing in newness that day,
It was bathed in the freshness of green.
The flower didn’t want to be trapped, so joined nature’s sway.
Puzzle
By Hester L Furey 25th April 2025
A rare free day of blue and gold
I walk to shake out the knots
Spring trees have spilled their yellow dust
I close my eyes against the sun
I open and find a universe
I rest my head against a rail
The ancient turtles have hidden
One can see to the bottom
In this neighborhood stream
I count fish and see
all that belongs
And all that does not
Haiku on Verdant Echoes
By Giuliana Ravagliaa 24th April 2025
early morning --
dancing in the wind
the song of the swallows
on the empty trunk
rosary of hope --
green ivy
new shoots --
the breath of time
beyond the threshold
Biographies of Poets
Sreelekha Chatterjee is a poet from New Delhi, India. Her poems have appeared in Madras Courier, Setu, Raw Lit, Verse-Virtual, The Wise Owl, Pena Literary Magazine, Ghudsavar Literary Magazine, Orenaug Mountain Poetry Journal, Poetry Catalog, Suburban Witchcraft Magazine, Creative Flight, Medusa’s Kitchen, Everscribe, and in the anthologies—Light & Dark (Bitterleaf Books, UK), Personal Freedom, The Harvest & the Reaping, Winter Glimmerings, and Whose Spirits Touch (Orenaug Mountain Publishing, USA), and Christmas-Winter Anthology Volume 4 (Black Bough Poetry, Wales, UK), among others.
Vijay Prasad is a poet from Patna, India. He is disappointingly interested in life. He has a passion for haiku, language, philosophy, and so on ... He is published in Bones, Under the Basho, tinywords, Failed Haiku, The Mumba Journal, Haiku Dialogue, Prune Juice, among others.
Dr. Paramita Mukherjee Mullick is a scientist, a literary curator and an award-winning poet. She has published 11 books and her books have been translated into 45 languages. Her latest awards being the “Ukiyoto Poet of the Year” in January this year, one of six women around India to receive an award themed, “Women: Breaking Barriers, Leading Futures, Shaping Change” last year and one of twenty recipients of the “Mumbai Woman Leadership Award 2024”. She promotes peace, multilingual and indigenous poetry. Through her poems she makes children and adults aware about conservation and climate change. Paramita heads two poetry and performance forums in Mumbai.
Giuliana Ravaglia was born in the province of Bologna (Italy), is a former primary school teacher and has a great love for poetry, especially haiku. His poems have been published on websites and online magazines: Otata, Troutswirl, ESUJ-H, Asahi Haikuist Network, The Mainichi, Scarlet Dragonfly Journal, Haikuuniverse, Cold Moon Journal, Akita International Haiku Network, The Bamboo Hut, Take 5ive, Haiku Corner, Memoirs of a Geisha, HaikuNetra, Haiku World, Failed Haiku among others. he received Honorable mention in Haiku EuroTop 100
Hester L. Furey is a poet and literary historian specializing in hidden histories and archival research. Furey has published many poems and essays in journals and encyclopedias. Representative full length works include a book of poems, Skeleton Woman Buys the Ticket (2019) and a reference book she compiled and edited, Dictionary of Literary Biography 345: American Radical and Reform Writers, Second Series. She lives in Atlanta with her black cat, Skillet.
Last Week, April 2025
Withered Spring
By Balesh Jindal 26th April 2025
Spring paces, then plods out
With hushed steps about.
Crinkled periwinkle
Droops
With a simple bow.
Roses, robust and rotund,
Pretend it's all well, yet stand
Stupidly stunned.
Azaleas, grand and grateful, peruse
Through reams of resigned reminiscences.
Riled with rancor, I grudge it all,
Browse through matters of memories,
Pensive and preoccupied.
Gaping and gasping at the
Analytical asters
Dead and died.
The smart skies, depraved and devoid
Of grace and goodwill
Lash with spates of fire of a
Million suns.
The proud Deodars
Singed and seared,
Sad and scathed, stand
In appalling acceptance as,
They all know, it's the
End of Spring.
Haiku
by Deborah Bennett 29th April 2025
first day of spring
clinging to the warehouse wall
yellow leaves
on pine branches
the frost turns to dew -
morning moon
how to compose
the March haiku -
frost flowers on the window
A stone
By Glenn Ingersoll 28th April, 2025
Ouch, said the stone
when the ant stomped on it,
thump thump thump
those stiff ant feet!
A stone nearby asked what was the matter.
This ant is hurting me!
said the stone.
I know what you mean, said the other stone.
For me it is not ants
but this terrible wind.
It gets into my cracks.
Why do you not cry out!
asked the ant-afflicted.
I do, said the other.
I sob and moan.
That was you? said the stone.
I thought it was the wind.
I felt so sorry for it.
Poor wind, I thought. How it hurts!
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Poems
By Robert Witmer 30th April 2025
still
small voice
a measure
of sunrise
muffled light
the last leaves
auburn in the afternoon
tremble in a weary tree
a sleeping painter's white moustache
a summer breeze
lifts sparkling waves
the pure breath of music
a conch shell
in her small hands
Biographies of Poets