Daily Verse
Week 1, June 2025
Cracked Vase
By Deepti Bhatia 2nd June 2025
Every day is a little May
Heat enhances and day brightens
I open the drawer, the candles there
Have melted down to nothingness
To this nothingness, I add colours
Pink, Blue, Gold, and swing the brush
What emerges is some pattern wild
I fill this wildness into the gaps
Of my cracked vase, kept beside
Do I see shimmers hardening into shape
Or the beauty that only cracks radiate!
A Poem
by Avantika Singh 4th June 2025
the mirage glimmers
shimmering on the sand
mesmerising, the illusion
dancing in the heat waves
it breathes a langour
a musical ritardando
from the crescendo
of the chimera
dazed am I
from a brazen day
that in the haze
brazenly dazes
and yet I dare
to hold
the chimera bold
aflame in my mind
hope,
gold dust on sunbeams,
will on another day
be denied to me
Poems on Heat, Haze & Happenstance
By Joanna Ashwell 3rd June 2025
this summer longing
for a dreamboat
to pull me far
from the shore
to a wishing moon
held in the haze
of a blossom fall
I fold into summer
ceiling fan
no rest from the sun
hour after hour
Anaphora of This Summer
By Gopal Lahiri 6th June 2025
This summer invites the wooden houses
to drink the blue sky.
That summer is the struggle of the
mango leaves in the courtyard.
That summer is only the pale faces
of the hibiscus plants on the patio.
This summer is the lingering silence
near the riverbank.
This summer is the warm breeze falls
down your arteries.
This summer is your mission inching
towards the sun.
This summer is the lamps near the doorway
await your return.
Biographies of Poets
Deepti is a content creator and academic writer living in Chennai, India. She has recently stepped into the creative writing space. During the past 3 months, her works have been published by Lekh, OTT Culture, Kitaab and Mono Mousumi magazines. She has also won Gold Medal for winning the writing contest by Mono Mousumi.
Avantika Vijay Singh is a writer, poet, blogger, editor, researcher, and amateur photographer. She is a believer in the oneness of the universe and quills to express her thoughts and emotions. She is the author of the anthologies 'Flowing...in the river of Life' and 'Dancing Motes of Starlight' (an e-book). She writes the blog Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives in the Times of India. She was awarded the Nissim International Award 2023 Runners-Up for Poetry.
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.
Gopal Lahiri is a bilingual poet, critic, editor, writer and translator with 31 books published, including eight solo/jointly edited books. His poetry and prose are published across more than one hundred journals and anthologies globally His poems are translated in 18 languages and published in 19 countries. He has been nominated for Pushcart Prize for poetry in 2021.
Steliana Cristina Voicu lives in Ploieşti, Romania and loves painting, poetry, Japanese culture, photography and astronomy. Her haiku, tanka, haiga, poetry, short-prose have been published worldwide, including Asahi Haikuist Network, Daily Haiga, The Wise Owl-The Daily Verse, Under the Bashō, Chrysanthemum and others. She is founder and editor of Enchanted Garden Haiku Journal-Romania. instagram: steliana_voicu
Week 2, June 2025
Haiku
By Ram Krishna Singh 10th June 2025
summer solstice
healing ceremonies:
Yoga Day
warblers fly back
seeing the soft-stepping cat
in the grassy yard
summer sickness:
couldn't penetrate
the night's darkness
Heat, Haze, Happenstance
by JK RaThor 9th June 2025
The summer came without restraint,
Each breath a brushstroke, bold and faint.
Aunt June, with one discerning glance,
Declared, “You need a second chance.”
The gym-a shrine to grit and sweat,
Where iron sang and brows were wet.
I hovered near the mirrored wall,
A stranger in the weight room’s sprawl.
Then he appeared-calm, poised, sincere:
“Let’s start with breath,” he said, drew near.
No judgement passed, no praise, no show-
Just quiet strength, a patient flow.
“Again,” he said. I tried, I fell,
Yet something stirred where silence dwells.
No power play, no grand pretense-
Just presence in the present tense.
I said, “I came to build my core.”
He smiled, “you’ve found a little more.”
Now mornings move in soft advance-
Through Heat. And haze. And happenstance.
But I Didn't Search for Anything
By Sriparna Mitra 11th June 2025
It was 2:47 PM
when the air melted the last thought I had.
The ceiling fan groaned with boiling regret,
as if it knew
life wasn’t moving.
In the world of paraphernalia
where I stayed or strayed,
the scent of sweat lingered
in the broken beauty
of half-dead chargers.
I found a Polaroid photo of us
wedged inside an unused diary.
I spilled water on it.
Your face was smudged
as if the summer heat of my being
had melted your existence into blur.
But I didn't search for anything!
The ink bled more ceaselessly into its secrets.
Somewhere in that sticky hour,
the doorbell rang once and stopped.
My half-melted hands were brooding
on something unexplained,
So I let that mystery rot on the other side.
From the unkempt world through the window
I saw a boy crossing the road barefoot,
carrying synthetic hopes and a watermelon half his size.
The sun caught his shoulder
as if the boy hadn’t paid rent either.
But I didn't search for anything more!
I didn’t write about him.
Maybe I should have.
But the melting numbness from the ceiling fan won.
It always does.
Unplanned
By Ketaki Mazumdar 13th June 2025
harmony in Summer is not planned nor taught…
not orchestrated…
it's a wild blush of a beautiful feeling….
that is unpredictable and uncontrolled…
it's when the purple Jacarandas bloom…
the amaltas are golden chandeliers of richness,
the maroon cotton silk flowers are exuberant,
the white and yellow Champa blooms… fragrances magic….
the excited summer green leaves are showered with drops of sunlight,
the wind caresses and sighs amidst their abundance…
Summer is when Koels yearn for love from dawn till dusk…
they sing sweetly… lovers loose themselves…
create their own love stories of summer romance…
unplanned surprises unfold…
fantasizing in memories of abandon they are often lost…
the butterflies are a fluttering dance of colours…
sip deeply the sweet nectar of summer…
it just happens…unplanned drowsy drunkenness…
a strange purity among the lotus eaters…
when the May full moon dances on waves….
creates dreamlike moods…
gift holy alliances…
my spirit guides sigh…
I just let my soul spirits fly…
Biographies of Poets
Jaswinder is a retired English Literature teacher and a self-published author of a children’s book. With a lifelong love of language, she writes with a keen eye for the quiet absurdities of everyday life, often laced with wit and warmth. She finds inspiration in the natural world and enjoys long walks that offer both solitude and story.
Ram Krishna Singh is an academic and a poet. He loves reading and writing haiku as well as other Japanese genre poetry.
Sriparna Mitra is a poet and writer from Kolkata, India with a Master's degree in English Literature and Language and a B.Ed. She has also qualified for NET JRF. Her works have appeared in the international anthology, Paradise on Earth: an International Anthology Volume II, and she is a recurring contributor to Double Speak Magazine, where her poems have been previously published. You can explore more of her work on Instagram: @sriparna_1996mitra.
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
Ketaki Mazumdar is an educationist and a poet. She is the recipient of many awards. Her poetry reflects her excitement with the beauty of nature, emotions, of grief, joy, love and also gently touches on the spirituality and mysticism of life.
Week 3, May 2025
Revival choreography
By Ketaki Mazumdar 16th May 2025
I search in the melting heat for a fluid choreography,
where the soul can dance in the fire!
I search as heat empowers fruits to ripen,
I search for textures that define the fingertips of thoughts
that can race through water.
I search as I slowly melt…
for a fluency that encounters inspiration.
A world melts around me,
and I search with eyes half shut
burning for the dynamics
that rhythmically cools the alcoves of my heart.
I search in lethargic loops, paint the perfect narratives,
in a language that withstands dehydrated sandstorms…
but melts the tar on the road!
yet as the cool early dawn whispers, my wings stretch into life again…
revived by the coolness of the rain on my upturned face…
in a revival choreography
hydrating my soul.
Poems on Meltdown & renewal
By Fatma Zohra Habis 15th May 2025
green carpet
over the ashes of winter
snow melts
turning to ash
withered plants
rain comes late
your apology is useless
for my broken heart
silent message
in front of cemetery
a tree renews its leaves
Armature
By Sanjeev Sethi 18th May 2025
I mute and manage the mind with the organizational
abilities at my bidding. I drafted a thesis justifying
your deeds and deals. Relieved, I set a reticulate to relax.
But a part of me wishes to tear down the veneer. Whydid I set up this circus to convince myself? Why did this
awkwardness make an unseasonal stopover?
The fire within me strangely doesn’t singe. It fuels the kilnof creativity. Once the roti of considered opinion is ready,
it simmers and signals for an armistice.
Poems on Meltdown & Renewal
By Joanna Ashwell 20th May 2025
mirror waves
a moonset dream
stippled in reeds
rebecoming myself
the soft rain
brushes my skin
phoenix feather
one more chance
to discover flight
Symphony of Enchanting Terns
By Swati Basu Das 21st May 2025
And now, the summer water burbles by,
Clear, beneath the brilliant blue sky.
Caging her ruby heart, she rested,
As calm and frigid as a frozen lake.
The winter rime encroached on a soul so supple,
Where Achos once warbled a fable of ache.
Now, slowly and warmly
Under the Koh-i-Noor, it shimmers and burns
To a merry tale of love untold
And the symphony of enchanting Terns.
Biographies of Poets
Ketaki Mazumdar is an educationist and a poet. She is the recipient of many awards. Her poetry reflects her excitement with the beauty of nature, emotions, of grief, joy, love and also gently touches on the spirituality and mysticism of life.
Fatma Zohra Habis lives in Algeria. She love poetry and Japanese culture. Fatma's specialty is physics. Several haiku and tanka poems have been published around the world, such as The Enchanted Garden and The Sacred Dragonfly THE Daily foundation The LEAF journal
Sanjeev Sethi has authored eight books of poetry. Legato Without a Lisp is his latest (CLASSIX, New Delhi, September 2024). His poetry has been published in over thirty-five countries and has appeared in more than 500 journals, anthologies, and online literary venues. He edited Dreich Planet # 1 India, an anthology for Hybriddreich, Scotland, in December 2022. He is the joint winner of the Full Fat Collection Competition-Deux, organized by Hedgehog Poetry Press, UK. In 2023, he won the First Prize in a Poetry Competition by the National Defence Academy, Pune. He was conferred the 2023 Setu Award for Excellence. He lives in Mumbai, India.
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.
Born and raised in the City of Joy - Calcutta (India), Swati Basu Das lives in Oman. She is a journalist. Her articles and columns on current issues, culture, and travel are published in newspapers and magazines. Her short stories and flash fiction have appeared in FemAsia, Borderless Journal, and others. She's a post-graduate in English Literature and has obtained a master's degree in Journalism and a diploma in Public Relations. She has worked with dailies like Times of India, Hindustan Times, Statesman in India and currently writes columns and articles for newspapers and magazines in Oman. She relishes music, escapades, coffee and John Keats
Week 4, May 2025
Rain that Bruises First
By Nishi Chawla 23rd 2025
By mid-May, the air no longer moves.
It squats on the chest, a dumb animal.
Time thickens, not with heat,
but with reduction.Everything begins to taste like metal.
The tongue remembers rivers,
but speaks only dust.A lizard watches from the wall
tail twitching,
perfectly still otherwise
not lazy,
but exact.Inside me,
something unnames itself.
Old comforts peel away like skin after burn.
No drama. Just
quiet loss.
Necessary as shedding.The sky refuses relief.
It holds back,
not out of cruelty,
but ritual.
The gods of monsoon do not come
for those still full.So I let the heat strip me.
Of plans. Of meaning.
Even hope
that especially.
It curls and blackens like paper,
and in that ruin,
a strange purity.When the rain finally comes,
it does not bless
it strikes.
The first drop hisses on my collarbone
like warning.
Not rebirth
but reformation.And what crawls out of me,
mud-soaked and blinking,
has no name yet.
Only repulse.
Only direction.
Poems on Meltdown & Renewal
by Vijay Prasad 22nd May 2025
summer burial -
i
am dead enough
summer -
the thin skin of
a river
late night -
her dry lips
the lone sound
When the Owls Hooted
By Santosh Bakaya 26th May, 2025
At night, when she heard the hoots of owls,
she howled, threw tantrums, and yearned for her roots.
Teary-eyed, she sang Lal Ded* songs
" I want to go back. I want to go back".
Like a child, she would weep, refusing to go to sleep,
drifting into a depression deep. How my granny missed her roots!.
Hoot-hoot, the owls hooted. For her home in Kashmir, she rooted.
One morning, she heard a cock- a-doodle, and her ears pricked up.
She raced to the window and peeped out,
going into a litany of happy giggles at an endearing sight.
Eyes bright, she screamed," There is a rooster atop the boundary wall".
"There are owls too," She added, experiencing a sense of deja vu.
Granny's meltdowns soon became things of the past.
Hearing the hoots and cock-a-doodles, our wistful granny had a blast!
"Jaipur is no different from Kashmir. There are owls here and roosters too.
The cows also moo under a canopy of blue!"
Soon, her memories of Kashmir assumed sepia tints.
She now felt cheerful, conversing with everyone in her mother tongue.
With a fresh ardour imbued, this septuagenarian was reborn. Renewed.
*The mystic poet of Kashmir, belonging to the Kashmir Shaivism school of Hindu Philosophy [ 1320-1392]
Prisoner
By Balesh Jindal 28th May 2025
Stamped and
Inked, I arrived bawling and
Yawning in the cradle.
Newborn clothes perfectly colored,
Fitted and matched, I smiled
To their joy.
“How pleasant..” they tweeted.
I sucked milk and burped gently.
Just the right way or so they said.
“My perfect daughter,” said my dad.
Coy and bashful I became a young girl,
Following, obeying,
Not a breath or a whisper without permission.
‘Girls should walk with grace..feet together..’ said my teachers
I harnessed my feet that craved to dance.
‘Girls should not speak loudly..a whisper is enough,’ suggested most so I gagged my throat into silence.
’Girls should not laugh too loud,’ said the neighborly aunt.
That was the day I started to cry if I wanted to laugh.
Was I born a prisoner?
One day, I decided to love myself,
A little..just a little.
I laughed till I shook,
I smiled brightly till the sun shied away,
A skip, a hop and a dance.
They looked aghast..how can a girl
Be so wanton..so shameless!
I walked away happy,
I was in love
With myself.
Haiku on Verdant Echoes
By Giuliana Ravagliaa 27th May 2025
shadow on the river -
in the eyes of a dragonfly
the light of the moon
old trunk -
the bark cracks
and blooms
almond blossoms
on the sidewalk -
stay close to me
Biographies of Poets
Dr Nishi Chawla holds a doctorate in English from the George Washington University, Washington D.C., and her post-doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland. After teaching for nearly twenty years as a tenured Professor of English at Delhi University, India, Nishi Chawla had migrated with her family to a suburb of Washington D.C. Nishi Chawla has recently completed her fourth feature film, 'The Peace Activists' on Gandhi, MLK, and Thoreau. Three of her art house feature films are on Amazon Prime: TechNous, The Strange Case of Normalcy, and Mixed Up are streaming on Amazon Prime. Her tenth play, The Mahatma versus Gurudev has been accepted to be staged in June 2025 again off Broadway, New York, making her one of the few Indian playwrights to ever have a play staged off Broadway.
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.
Internationally acclaimed for her poetic biography of Mahatma Gandhi, Ballad of Bapu, and the biography of Martin Luther King Jr. Santosh Bakaya, PhD, poet, essayist, novelist, biographer, columnist, TEDx speaker, has written thirty well- received books across different genres. Morning Meanderings is her popular column on learning and creativity.com. Her TEDx talk, The Myth of Writer’s Block is very popular in creative writing circles
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
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.
Last Week, May 2025
Poems on Meltdown & Renewal
by Snigdha Agrawal 29th May 2025
Rooh Afza…
her thirst unquenchable
to be seen, to belong
just a garnish
in someone else's summer
couldn’t let go…
emotions sealed tight
like green mangoes, sun-pickled
waiting for the monsoon
to soften the ache
old self…
splintered in the summer heat—
then quietly bloomingfirst shy touch of rain
Haiku on Meltdown & Renewal
By Paul Callus 30th May, 2025
emotional breakdown
restored by therapy –
wild flowers bloom
inhale exhale
the leaden sea shimmers
as clouds disperse
overwhelmed
by the response from strangers –
tears of gratitude
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Biographies of Poets
