Daily Verse
Week 1, March 2025
Metamorphosis
By Concetta Pipia 3rd March 2025
In the mirror’s gaze, a face half-known,
Shifts like shadows cast by candle’s flame.
Eyes, once anchors, drift in seas alone,
Lips whisper secrets, mouthing my name.
Flesh dissolves to vapor, bone to mist,
A chrysalis of thought, I am unmade.
Time’s cruel needle weaves its endless twist,
Stitching seams where old and new cascade.
From ashes of the past, I rise, reborn,
A phoenix forged in fires of forlorn.
Perpetual Autumn
By Parminder Singh 5th March 2025
The maples should have shed their amber crown,
December winds should strip the branches bare,
Yet still these leaves refuse to settle down—
Like memories that linger in the air.
The calendar insists the season's passed,
But something in me keeps October here:
Each morning wears the colors of the last,
The twilight holds its golden atmosphere.
My neighbors' gardens turn to winter's rest,
While in my yard, the autumn light remains,
Like some perpetual and welcome guest
That builds its home in November's domains.
The world may rush toward spring's relentless birth,
While autumn's embers smolder in my earth.
Haiku on Thresholds & Transformations
By Robert Witmer 4th March 2025
perfectly useless
a leaf falls
on a sunny day
stars on a string
a child in heaven
flying kites
rain shower
a ballerina
on roller skates
Haiku
By Hifsa Ashraf 6th March 2025
clouds at dusk
the deep furrows
of a plowed field
mid-winter fog—
the headless sparrows
on a balcony wall
homecoming…
dripping from the icicles
moonlight
Hope
By Balesh Jindal 7th March 2025
When the deadly, damned dust
Settles in nasty, naked corners.
When the trough of tears
Dry up on their way to a cry.
I open my chafing mouth to smile at
Solitary strangers, more lonely than I.
When I felt a choke and a gag,
When the seething world seemed to
Sink swiftly beneath sodden feet,
It is when the purple clouds come
Agonizing and angered,
Decadent in derision.
This is when I looked out at the sea,
With not any hope.
Sobbing, searching, scanning the horizon.
I will not sink,
I shall not sink
Holding on to little wimpy, wispy
Creepers of hope,
Standing tall I waited,
Hoping for A New Beginning
Biographies of Poets
Concetta Pipia was born and raised in New York City and is a published poet and writer of verse and prose. Her poetry appears in National and International anthologies and literary magazines. Ms. Pipia is a member of the Editorial Board of "Different Truths" as well as a member of Writers Capital International.
Robert Witmer has resided in Japan for the past 45 years. Now an emeritus professor, he has had the opportunity to teach courses in poetry and creative writing not only at his home university in Tokyo but also in India. His poems and prose poetry have appeared in many print and online journals and books. His first book of poetry, a collection of haiku titled Finding a Way, was published in 2016. A second book of poetry, titled Serendipity, was published in 2023. An author’s page for Robert Witmer can be found at both the Poets & Writers and AuthorsDen websites.
Parminder Singh is an IT Professional-turned-educator, and has overall experience of over two decades in the fields of software development, project management, digitization and teaching. He currently works as Assistant Professor of English at Dev Samaj College for Women, Chandigarh. He specializes in Cultural Studies and Digital Humanities. He is a multilingual poet, translator, short-story writer, and has national and international publications. He has been a key contributor in setting up Panjab Digital Library. He has received Jathedar G. S. Tohra Award for his Punjabi translation of P. S. Sachdeva’s Appreciating Sikhism and has co-translated Sudeep Sen’s poetry into Punjabi titled Gau-Dhoorh Vela.
Hifsa Ashraf is an award-winning multilingual poet, author, editor, and social activist from Rawalpindi, Pakistan. She is a pioneer in her country for writing modern Japanese style micropoetry in English. Her work has been widely published in international journals, newspapers, magazines, blogs and anthologies. She is the author of six individual and three collaborative micropoetry books. Please follow her on social media at @hifsays.
Balesh Jindal is a graduate of Lady Hardinge Medical College and has a medical practice for forty years. She wanted to study in London to become a paediatrician, yet found herself practicing in a remote village. She loves writing & reading poetry in her spare time
Week 2, March 2025
Whispers of the Sky
By Harsimranjeet Kaur 10th March 2025
The wind hums secrets only I can hear,
A call to the heavens, crisp and clear.
With wings of will and a heart of fire,
I rise to meet the sky’s desire.
Each take-off births a brand-new tale,
Through shifting winds and fleeting trails.
No landing mirrors the one before,
Each a lesson, a gift, and more.
From Leh’s proud peaks wrapped in frost,
To Andaman waves where time feels lost.
From western sands to Vijayanagar’s green,
I traverse realms few have seen.
Mountains bow as I carve the air,
Oceans ripple beneath my stare.
Every view, a canvas vast,
Moments fleeting, yet built to last.
This is no journey of flight alone,
But a symphony of duty, my soul’s tone.
As a woman of strength in skies unbound,
I claim my place where courage is found.
The blue is endless, my spirit too,
Bound by purpose, loyal, true.
For in this dance with the clouds above,
I find my mission, my purpose, my love.
Poems
by Mona Bedi 11th March 2025
first rains —
the green scent
of renewal
zen garden
turning the prayer wheel
I purify my karma
receding tide --
I give the relationship
another chance
Nullity
By Sunil Kaushal 12th March 2025
Is sadness a visitor in your life
One that overstayed
beyond
the departure date-
Sorrow,
preparing to leave
tomorrow.
But never does?
Or is sadness your housemate-
A permanent presence
Oscillating between
Comfort and nuisance
You learnt to endure
year after year
and even take to bed
each night?
Or is it a part of your body now
Entangled with your fibrous mesh
Swallowing your plasma
Your bones and flesh
So much so,
you no longer know
who's who?
You don't have to answer yet.
But the question made you
pause.
Let you and me linger awhile
in the space of this
sacred second.
In this detached velvet of time
that sadness cannot
claw or tease.
Let's give this moment a name.
Shall we call it peace?
Poems
By Jennifer Gurney 13th March 2025
I pop the cork
exploding from within
joy bubbles out
withered plants
covered in new year’s snow
possibilities
stepping
through the mist
I meet myself
On winter's Threshold
by Satbir Chadha 14th March 2025
Summer doesn’t leave and winter’s slow to come
I love this calm soothing long drawn autumn
The squirrel curls it’s bushy tail as it basks in the sun
The birds too delay their long yearly sojourn
But the earth knows its timings and follows them true
For the spinach has grown big and the lettuce is fragrant
Tiny golden blooms have sprung on the mustard greens
Tall and short trees though shorn and naked, seem to be in prayer
So calm is the countryside and ever so serene
Just a few showers from the gaping yawning clouds
Like blessings from heaven will cleave the grey shroud
Of the smog hanging in temperatures temperate
And make way for the winter that’s running late
Biographies of Poets
Sqn Ldr Harsimranjeet Kaur is a proud military aviator with over nine years of dedicated service to the nation. She lives by the motto “Service Before Self.” With a degree in engineering, she combines technical expertise with a passion for transformative change. Beyond the cockpit, she is an avid writer and traveler, finding inspiration in the skies she traverses and the stories she uncovers.
Dr Sunil Kaushal, is a gynaecologist, poet, essayist, translator and editor. *Her twice awarded memoir, "Gypsy Wanderings and Random Reflections" won the prestigious Nissim International Award for Non-Fiction, along with Golden Book Award. She was awarded the Women Achiever’s Award 2019, besides several others. She has been translated into French, Greek, German, Punjabi, and Chinese. Always in love with life keeps her vibrant at eighty, reflecting in her life and writings.
Mona Bedi is a medical doctor in Delhi, India. She has been writing poetry since childhood but a few years back she started writing the Japanese form.. haiku. She has authored two poetry books published by the name of 'they you and me' and 'dancing moonlight.' She received the Grand Prize in the 3rd Morioka Haiku Festival, 2021 and four haiku of merit in the World Haiku Review 2021/2022 alongwith an honourable mention at the Japan Fair 2021. Her haiku, tanka haibun and Haiga has been published in various journals of repute like Presence, Modern haiku, Haiku dialogue, Haiku in Action, Triveni haikuKatha, Drifting sands, Failed haiku, Stardust, among others.
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’s first book of poetry, My Eyes Adjusting, was published in 2024. Her second book, Liquid Sky, will be out early this year. To-date, nearly 1,400 of her poems have been published in just over two years.
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, March 2025
A Meaning in the making
By Nidhi Rana 19th March 2025
They made her feel
that she was the chaos
in every order,
the concealed seed of discord,
in each note of harmony,
the envy that brewed
in her lack of attention
or in the awareness
of her criticism.
She found herself scraping
to be the truth
she could breathe into her voice,
the ego she must master.
She needed to be the eloquence
that hid in shadows
of feeling too much, too deeply,
which obscured reason,
lurking like a mirage,
on the horizon of
answers given and questions asked.
She coerced herself
to cross over the threshold
to step over the line
to breach the bounds of her being
to embark on a new journey
that speared inwards.
She bludgeoned herself
to transform,
metamorphosize,
to translate,
into a benediction of time.
She created herself into that woman,
who was her own meaning in the making!!
Micropoems
by Snigdha Agrawal 18th March 2025
once nubile,
the cynosure of all eyes,
spring in her gait,
now confined within a shell
etched by time,
her seasons entwined,
blossom to wither
…ephemeral
renewal...
buds unfurl,
memories stir
winter-worn hands
crave the sun’s embrace
rebirth...
green pierces through
melting snow
on her water bed
she floats downstream
to her springtime
where roots remember
and silence blooms
Hibiscus
By Radha Chakravarty 21st March 2025
every day, Ma,
in cupped palms you offered
a fresh-plucked red hibiscus
to your god, singing prayers
for our souls every day
until one day the song abandoned you
and the hibiscus bloomed un-plucked,
until, sighing, it shed blood red petals
like scattered droplets
of your disintegrating mind
day by day, slowly
your old self left us
shedding cells of memory
like a snake’s discarded skin
leaving a vanishing trail
of clues to who you once were
or might have been
every day, slowly,
you lost your way
in the forest of forgetting,
knew our faces, yet
mistook our names
until one day you saw us as strangers
old songs lingered longest
in your mind’s bewildered hive
tuneless crooning affirming
you were there still though lost
somewhere in the forest
of forgetting
until one day the music stopped
and you turned a deaf ear to our calls
your fragile helpless hand
groping for a grip
on the handles of old familiar things
as we too struggled to hold on
to the you we knew
holding in desperate hands
your frail frame as you forgot
slowly, slowly, day by day,
how to see, hear, touch, feel, and pray
until one day,
that day you went away,
a red hibiscus bloomed in the garden
in blood red glory
and we knew, then, where to find you still,
we knew then where the lost trail led
Haiku
By Guiliana Ravaglia, 20th March 2025
fresh hyacinths -
my barefoot heart
anchored in the sky
kite -
I still run after you
my disheveled spring
scattered in the wind
dandelion seeds -
a new journey
March: The in-between
By Nishi Chawla 24th March 2025
March walks in on brittle bones,
neither keeper nor wanderer,
only a thin breath between endings and beginnings.
The trees, indecisive, hold their bare arms aloft,
not yet convinced by the hush of warmth crawling
beneath the frozen ribs of the earth.
Somewhere, a river forgets its ice,
splinters it off in slow abandonment,
sending jagged memory downstream.
The fields exhale in patches,
the sun lingers longest, frost withdraws,
the shadow still leans, the cold clings.
Clouds move, hands rearranging sky,
pulling blue from the folds of winter’s coat,
the wind, unfinished in its work,
still carries the scent of distance.
The birds return in increments,
not in triumph but in careful measure,
testing the air like a child pressing toes
into uncertain water.
At night, the thaw retreats,
a temporary surrender to the past.
come morning, the earth shifts again,
an unseen hinge creaking toward bloom.
March, the doorway no one lingers in,
unfinished sentence before the verb,
the tide before it fully turns,
a waiting place where nothing stays
but everything changes.
Biographies of Poets
Dr. Nidhi Rana is an Assistant Professor in English in Post Graduate Government College for Girls, Sector-42, Chandigarh. Recipient of the prestigious State Award 2021 for her meritorious service, she has also edited two Coffee table books for the UT Chandigarh Administration. She writes poetry and short stories to give voice to her experiences as she passionately engages with life. Her poems have figured in various anthologies and magazines like Muse India. Her first book of poetry titled ‘Of Love, Longing and Other poems’ was published in August 2023.
Snigdha Agrawal (nee Banerjee) has an MBA in Marketing and Corporate work experience of over two decades. She enjoys writing all genres of poetry, prose, short stories, and travel diaries. Brought up in a cosmopolitan environment, and educated in Convent Schools run by Irish Nuns, she has imbibed the best from Eastern and Western cultures. She has authored 4 books, namely Trail Mix, Minds Unplugged, Evocative Renderings & Tales of the Twins.
Radha Chakravarty is a widely published writer, critic and translator. Subliminal: Poems is her recent collection of poetry. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. She contributed to Pandemic: A Worldwide Community Poem (Muse Pie Press, USA), nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020.
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
Dr Nishi Chawla is an academic, a writer and a filmmaker. Nishi Chawla has published ten plays, two novels, and seven collections of poetry. She has also written and directed four award winning art house feature films. She has also co-edited two global anthologies of poetry published by Penguin Random House: 'Greening the Earth' and 'Singing in the Dark.'
Week 4, March 2025
Life's Rapidity
By Sangeeta Sharma 26th March 2025
Nothing surpasses the speed of life
Like Talaria, Hermes’ winged sandals, or an arrow, that darts at the blink of an eye
Swiftly leaving treacly-tangy instants behind and zoom fly
The rising sun in all its glory fires up the sinews with its golden eye-blinding glaze
Few hours, the sun wanes with the cool, silvery moon appearing with its pleasing rays
Or the murky clouds blocking the coruscate with their scary haze
Life never identical, provides some let-up
Now and then from the painful phase
Instead of exacerbating the vulnerable state!
Poems
by Vijay Prasad 25th March 2025
there 𝘪𝘴 a season even though 𝘪 die
always in transition a name not owned
seasons pile up around the body i carry
with excess of being she arrives in another season
Dirge
By TSC Mouli 28th February, 2025
Sadness saps energy
precious life withers
pain beyond words
slices spirit unremittingly.
Last moments creep quietly
like water under mat spread
inhaling vitality ruthlessly
march towards goal stretches.
Strength deserts deceptively
jolting rock like soul
whispers spew silent venom
tired breath seeks relief!
An Abade to March
By Avantika Singh 29th March 2025
in the crimson hush of twilight
magic stirs the embers of the first light
March dawns from winter’s chrysalis
on the whispering wind, a gentle kiss
a liminal space
between what was and what is—
filled with possibility
trembling in its vulnerability
an aubade in time
a time sublime
the hush before the awakening
the gentle hum before the roaring…
floating on the sea of consciousness
in the silver stream of existence
Poems
By Kavita Ratna 26th March 2025
summer rain
palms facing up
glitter gold
rolling stones
bubbles
ferry tales
kernel and chaff
breeze travels
light
Biographies of Poets
