Daily Verse
Week 1, October 2025
Thresholds
By Vandana Garg, 6th October 2025
I never understood
A quiet, subtle, shifting ground
Where my joys become sorrows
Where my hopes are fragile
Where my fears are loud
Where my patience ends
And words freeze,
Where the darkness just began
I lost the sense of being me
A boundary appears
With coldest slogans of “yours” & “mine”
I have condemned since beginning
The lines drawn and crossed
On the edge of the dear world
Where my mind is wild and free
I prefer to stand still on the Thresholds!
The Quiet Before
by Bhavana Rathore, 7th October 2025
Beneath
hush of thoughts,
silence of an eclipsed mind paces-
Like those medieval paintings
serene, still, lost in time.
A moment
never to be retrieved,
endless-
this spiral, wherever I go.
By the brooks,
by the creeks,
unrest lingers in the calm
almost fading the bright of sun-
The sky cloaked in grey,
as if holding the storm
yet to begin.
In between
By Concetta Pipia, 8th October 2025
We linger in the space
where yesterday dissolves
and tomorrow is not yet.
A breath hangs between endings,
a foot poised above the unknown.
Nothing is settled, nothing certain,
and still the heart leans forward,
hungry for the shift,
thirsting for the moment
that folds one self into another.
The Metaphysical portal
By Nivedita K, 10th October 2025
In the mysterious realm beyond human perception,
a threshold exists
an invisible veil.
Here, thoughts dissolve into eternity
and the soul sights its own reflection in the nothingness.
When we step across, not with our feet but our consciousness,
we leave behind the confines of form
and enter a space where time bends
and the true essence of being exists.
Here, the boundary is no boundary at all.
There is only a gateway to limitless understanding,
a fleeting breath between the finite and the infinite.
Poet's Note: I have taken threshold to mean that elusive threshold that no living being knows about but one that we all must cross at some point in our life. A crossing of the threshold to Nothingness? Infinity? Rebirth? Heaven? Hell? The answers remain ever elusive, and it is this elusiveness I have tried to capture by showing how it is our soul that crosses over this threshold and sees nothingness and infinity and the finite.
Biographies of Poets
Vandana Garg is a Chandigarh-based poet who loves to read and write poetry
Bhawana Rathore is a student and a haiku enthusiast, deeply interested in literature and human sciences. She dedicates her poetry to her late grandparents. Her work has been published in some of the haiku anthologies and online haiku journals, including tsuri-dōrō, BONES, Cattails, Prune Juice, Failed Haiku, Femku, Chrysanthemum, Under the Basho etc. She finds happiness in simplicity of life. She writes here- https://aswordsfly.com/
Concetta Pipia, born and raised in New York City, writes fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and prose that linger in the spaces between memory and imagination, capturing the quiet pulse of human experience. Her work has appeared in international anthologies and literary magazines, including "The Raven’s Perch," (2023), "The Wise Owl," (2023), "The Wise Owl’s Daily Verses," (2024, 2025), "The Suffolk County Poetry Review," (2024, 2025), "Summer Sashays" (2025), and the online daily newspaper "Different Truths" (2024, 2025). She co-edited the anthology "Seasons of Change: Reflecting Today, Dreaming Tomorrow," (2024). A graduate of Parsons, Touro University School of Law, and the University of Phoenix, she is also a certified well-life coach, blending insight and artistry in her writing and practice.
Nivedita Karthik is a graduate in Immunology from the University of Oxford and a professional Bharatanatyam dancer. Her work has been published in various online and print poetry magazines and anthologies, both nationally and internationally. She has three poetry books to her credit – She: The Reality of Womanhood, The Many Moods of Water, and Pa(i)red Poetry. Her profile showcasing her use of poetry to address pertinent issues was featured in Lifestyle Magazine
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.
Week 2, October 2025
Threshold breath
By Sabyasachi Roy, 13th October 2025
the porch light hums like an old fridge
moths memorize the smear of warm glass.
you stand in socks with holes, bazaar-sock bold,
holding a cup of burnt popcorn and summer’s last beer.
there’s a crack of cold at the lip of the door—
not wind, not polite. a small theft.
you hesitate. shoes on, shoes off, who knows.
the neighbor’s radio counts down to nothing.
a moth bangs its head until it stops.
you close the door because you always close the door.
inside, the kettle ticks like a heart you used to own.
in the dark, the house keeps all the exits it borrowed.
But, Between the Rows-
they hauled the last sacks at noon, sun like a waiting apology.
old men spat seeds into their palms and measured silence.
you touch the last corn stalk — it’s brittle as forgetting.
the field is a mouth, half-shut, chewing on the year.
children play at the edge, daring the sky to fall.
they say step over the furrow and something older will notice.
you fold your shirt, again—a ritual of leaving things neat.
your hands smell of rope and lemon soap;
someone laughs, wrong note.
there is a path you never took, weeded by the wind.
you walk it anyway because grief is a stubborn map.
by the fence, the scarecrow has borrowed your face for a night.
you wave. the scarecrow waves better.
Poems
By Kavita Ratna, 14th October 2025
ICU…
the aroma of coffee
arrives,
with each visitor
bulldozer rumble…
her calendar god
hangs by a thread
a barbed fence
draped in honeysuckle
ceasefire
Poems
By Joanna Ashwell, 15th October 2025
Key
I leave the door ajar
for your heart
to find some light
every nightbird
sings of love
whispers echo
come inside, come inside
Dreams
the liminal hours
moonset
ignites a wish
turning back to me
the certainty
of soul fire
Beginning
one ruby slipper
left on a rung
mid-journey
October: Threshold of Change
By Ritu Kamra Kumar, 16th October 2025
When summer’s song retreats with faint farewell,
And autumn’s amber torch begins to glow,
October weaves her wistful, winsome spell,
A bridge where waning winds of memory blow.
She clothes the trees in cloaks of crimson flame,
Yet whispers winter’s will with frosted breath;
Her beauty blooms, but knows it cannot claim
Escape from time’s inevitable death.
The orchards sigh, the fading flowers dream,
While clouds, like pilgrims, drift across the skies;
Her days are gilded, yet her nights redeem
The heart with hope, though shadows slowly rise.
O Threshold month, thou teachest souls to see,
That change is loss—yet loss births legacy
Darkwing
By Sandeep Chauhan, 17th October 2025
fallen paulownia
ants crossing
the temple step
Who says October ends only in withering?
Along the bridge, the cold wind carries the last blossoms to the railing.
Dragonflies keep stitching light across the stream.
A carp breaks from dark water, carrying leaves outward into sudden brightness.
Ginkgo coins scatter across the stones as if the month measured itself in gold.
Overhead, wild geese cross the span.
The air bends into another shape.
The river bears both petal and husk.
The season withers in one gesture and repairs in the next.
first frost
an empty boat drifts
toward the pier
Biographies of Poets
Sabyasachi Roy is an academic writer, poet, artist, and photographer. His poetry has appeared in Viridine Literary, The Broken Spine, Stand, Poetry Salzburg Review, The Potomac, and more. He contributes craft essays to Authors Publish and has a cover image in Sanctuary Asia. His oil paintings have been published in The Hooghly Review.
Kavita Ratna is a children's rights activist, poet and a theatre enthusiast. 'Sea Glass' and 'Every peck a rainbow' are her two poetry collections, both published by Red River. Her poems have appeared in The Kali Project: Invoking the Goddess within, Presence, Asahi Shimbun, Under the Basho, Muse India, The Wise Owl, haikuKATHA, Haiku in Action, the Mamba -Journal of Africa Haiku Network, Black and white haiga, the Cold Moon Journal, Five Fleas Itchy poetry, the Haiku Dialogue, Stardust Haiku, LEAF (Journal of The Daily Haiku), and several others. She was on the Haiku panel at the Glass House Poetry Festival, Bangalore, 2024 and the Mysore Literature Festival, 2024. She is also a Pushcart Prize nominee, 2023 and a Touchstone Award nominee, 2024.
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 and two further Cherita collections are available on Amazon, Moonset Song (2024) and Love’s Scriptures (2025). She currently serves on the selection team for the Canadian Tanka Journal GUSTS.
Dr. Ritu Kamra Kumar, Retd. Officiating Principal and Associate Professor of English at MLN College, Yamuna Nagar, is an acclaimed academician, poet, and writer. With over 400 contributions to leading national newspapers and magazines, she has published 70+ research papers in reputed national and international journals and edited books. A noted resource person and speaker, she has led workshops and panel discussions nationwide, including at the Delhi Book Fair 2024. Honoured by the District Administration and featured as an Empowered Woman by The Hindustan Times, she is a recipient of the Indian Woman Achiever Award and has authored eight acclaimed books.
Born into a literary family in Punjab, India, Sandip Chauhan holds a PhD in Punjabi literature. Currently residing in Northern Virginia, USA, she pursues a career as a bank regulator in the federal government. Chauhan has contributed to three haiku anthologies: "In One Breath: A Haiku Moment," co-edited by her; "Kokil Anmb Sunhavi Bole" (The Sweet Song of Koel Bird from the Mango Tree); and "Beyond the Fields," a trilingual haiku collection in English, Punjabi, and Hindi. Additionally, she authored "Sprouting Grass," a haiku poetry collection. With a deep passion for Japanese haiku, Chauhan finds joy in expressing herself through writing poetry in her mother tongue, Punjabi.
Week 3, October 2025
The gown of the ninth moon
By Urmi Chakravarti 15th Sep 2025
When summer’s crown slips low upon her hair,
She trades her gold for robes more rare.
A queen grown wise, she folds her fire away,
September walks the sky in dusk’s embroidered sway.
The mountains bow; the rivers curve to hear
Her velvet voice that hails the fading year.
Each beam a blessing - heavy, slow, and deep,
A dream she grants the fields before they sleep.
She trails the scent of orchards in her hem,
And pearls of dew adorn her diadem.
The wind serenades her, robed in rust and flame,
And calls each leaf by its forgotten name.
Velvet hides the shadow in her seam
A silver thread that pulls apart the dream.
For every reign should fall, each day must die;
She smiles through tears, and rests her crown on the sky.
Poems
By Sarah Calvello, 16th Sep 2025
Missed
Watercolor vibrance
A caress of cashmere sun
Peach coral sunsets
In the crisp heart of autumnEvery sound seems soothing
Reminiscent thoughts wondering
Trailing withe flurry of leaves
The past is not always missed
Free Falling
Colors never seen
Unwinding ribboned hues
A bright Monet kind of love
When the sun wears velvet
And the air is hazy
A state of imaginary graceSlow see-saw of leaves
Everything seems suspended
In free falling
Amid the kaleidoscope of autumn
Turning over lazily
Days surrendering to the cold
A Velvet Celebration
By Santosh Bakhaya, 18th Sep 2026
On feeling something on my back,
I whirled back; ah ! It was the past
putting a hand on my shoulder .
Growing bolder , it took me in an embrace .
I felt so warm and cocooned , almost wanting to croon that good ole song that my mother sang .
I saw mom clad in an embroidered velvet shawl .
Pure pashmina, a tender warmth .
She smiled . Soft , gentle and loving .
Then , I saw the sun; it looked a tad different.
Had the past trooped into the present ?
What a present packed in velvet !
Had my mother resurfaced as the velvet sun?
Its tender splendour caressed me.
I glimpsed a smile on my mother‘s face !
She tightened the velvet shawl around her frail frame and disappeared, leaving a trail
of love behind. Something stirred inside me .
A new song . A soft , muted beauty .
I heard Mary Oliver whispering
“Is it red bird
or something inside me singing ?”
The sun was wearing velvet , mimicking my mother. Plagiarism or emulation?
No , a celebration .
A resurrection of my mother’ s touch !
Poems
By Joanna Ashwell, 17th September 2026
starlings
the small space
for myself at dusk
scented candle
the warm tone
measuring sunset
night rain
when the world
softens her hum
Sunlight
By Latika Singha 19th September, 2025
sunlight dappling
through
the frolicking
leaves,
a hush in
the afternoon,
almost like
moss
on a damp
branch..
dulcet rays,
ushering in,
as it were..
cooler climes,
lengthening
shadows,
and the mellow
suggestion,
of a gentler
sun,
enveloping
the earth,
in a soft,
warm
embrace
Biographies of Poets
Urmi Chakravorty is a former educator and presently, a freelance writer whose articles, short stories and poems have found space in The Hindu, The Times of India, and more than twenty national and international literary journals and anthologies. Reviewing and editing are other areas she dabbles in. Urmi has won national awards for her poetry and for writing on LGBTQIA issues. She believes in the therapeutic power of words and her pieces enclose a slice of her soul. Her other interests include music, travel, and spending time with community dogs.
Sarah Mahina Calvello loves reading and writing haiku and other forms of Japanese poetry
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.
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 and two further Cherita collections are available on Amazon, Moonset Song (2024) and Love’s Scriptures (2025). She currently serves on the selection team for the Canadian Tanka Journal GUSTS.
Latika Singha, ever enchanted by the written and spoken ' word ', lives in jaipur, with her green friends, friends with paws and some spirited fellow humans. She is also besotted by expression in hindustani.. and absorbs herself, reading and writing in this lovely language too..
Week 4, September 2025
When the sun wears velvet
By Vandana Garg, 22nd September 2025
A fiery artist came into view
afloat on horizons, draped in golden haze.
A final flaming muse for the day’s last lounge
softly reciting over the purple hills.
The shadows stretch, yawn and narrate,
aphonic crimson stories, dancing on the window panes.
The world soaked into ancient red wine
a subtle warmth gently embraced me.
Shadows finally turned grey ashes,
day slipped into immense darkness,
whispered goodbyes to me.
Like a tired emperor, he wears purple velvet,
no more gold and blinding glints, only crimson
deep like a dark forest and its shadows lengthen to the ash greys,
The darkness pulls down its curtains,
the stars shimmer
the purplish velvet finds its way to the half-lived, waking Dream.
Poems
by Guliana Ravaglia, 25th September 2025
twilight -
the golden silence
of sunflowers
september weaves
orange origami -
silent abandonment
last journey -
the velvety light
of cyclamens
Poems
By Vijay Prasad, 26th September 2025
alone with Sun's angle lower in the sky
the day folds in half under a dim weight
a ray spins and slides down her 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘷𝘦 consent
September 𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘴 inside her rustling body
The Purple Velvet of Helios
By Debaleena Mukherjee 28 September 2025
The grey sky is a burnished shield of a pewter dawn
A tentative sun and quicksilver rain on an autumn morn.
Summer was the kiln of coarse ashes and warm ripening
The brassy heat glaze sweetened fruits that cupped the sun.
What is the colour of this enigmatic season’s sun?
Rain drenched sunlight that has a sensuous fragrance,
The sun is a saffron orb :once luscious, and once lucent,
The season has infused into the sun a honeyed translucence.
Perhaps in this time of the year the magi of old wise ways,
Create the sun with copper, and gold with the alchemy of days.
There is sunlight that is poured into the glazier’s furnace,
And the sublime amber Helios throbs with a passionate haze.
Somewhere Helios reins his horses in the autumn of the earth,
The sun god seeks to soothe his fevered brow with winter’s first touch.
The sun has slowed in this golden autumn’s dewy season,
The caress of coolness transforms the fiery rays to soft feelings.
The sun is the knight of the tender rain misted sky that is pallid hued,
Emblazoned with heraldic ochre, the sun is the warrior and lover too.
The sun and the sky are cocooned in the secrets of an autumn night.
When sun wears velvet– the “Helios purple robe”like the sky’s sleep-smudged eyes.
Poems
By Laila B. 24th September 2025
Creaking Window
Girl in a hijab
paints water lilies
in freezing rain,
as fresh water
washes the traces
of her past.
Fresh Start
I let the fireflies
enter through the open gate
as I taste his sandalwood skin
on the picnic rug
we bought years ago.
Inheritance
The tar on the childhood road
is still fresh,
even as the incense
of adulthood fades.
Biographies of Poets
Vandana Garg is a Chandigarh-based poet who loves to read and write poetr
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.
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.
Debaleena Mukherjee, an ardent lover of poetry, pens lyrical musings whenever time offers her a fleeting pause.
Laila Brahmbhatt, is a writer with roots in Kashmir. Her ancestors came from that beautiful region of India and eventually settled in Bengal and Bihar, where she spent her early years. For the past 14 years, she has worked as a Senior Consultant in New York. Laila'a haiku have been published in various international magazines, including Cold Moon Journal, Five Fleas Itchy Poetry, Shadow Pond Journal, Fresh Out Magazine, and Under the Basho. Her haibun has appeared in Failed Haiku. Additionally, her poems have been published in newspapers such as Kashmir Pen, The Madras Courier, and NII Journal.
Last Week, September 2025
When the sun wears velvet
by Rupa Anand 29th September 2025
the things we cannot polish September stars
something beyond
human understanding
September sky
when the sun wears velvet paws over mine
soft sunshine . . .
the leaves shiny
and glistening
