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
On the threshold
By Ketaki Mazumdar 21st October 2025
Two tender green banana plants decorated
the doorway to her new home…
She paused at the threshold
a Bengali bride slightly nervous
head covered, gold bangles jingling
a gold chain necklace, chandbala earrings…
the parting in her black hair filled with vermillion sindoor…
She stood…
holding a wriggling fish wrapped thankfully
with a red towel…
laughter, instructions, children rushing around..
she stood…apprehensive…
before stepping on to a thaal of red alta…
trying not to let her sari slip down…
waiting for a clay pot of fresh milk… to boil over…
smoke swirled…it seemed endless…
the conch shell was blown at last as the milk boiled over
depicting the abundance the new bride brought in with Her..
the fish wriggling in Her shaky fingers … sign of new life and fertility…
She stood at the threshold and finally
stepped out and tipped a mud pot of rice with her toe, daintily,
rice cascaded out
symbolically bringing in more abundance to her household,
promising to cook and care…
In crossing of the threshold
she left her red footsteps…surrogate of goddess Laxmi…
stepping in,
bringing in abundance, fertility and prosperity…
A thousand bemused thoughts spinning
amidst laughter, reassurance and blessings
she crossed the threshold smiling…
welcomed with a tilak chandan aarti …
Poems
By Mona Bedi, 22nd October 2025
new bride
henna stained feet
falter at the doorstep
autumn’s threshold
a lone leaf drifts away
in the breeze
last breath
dad’s silent crossing
to the other side
In-betweens
By Snigdha Agrawal, 23rd October 2026
in the pause between listening…
there is a quiet
that pays closer attention
more than any noise could handle.
there is more than emptiness…
in this pause
the lung’s quiet gratitude
of a life ticking thus far
it is a place of trust,
where invisible roots grow,
allowing the unknown
to hold one’s shaking hands.these pauses, fragile yet fierce,
are thresholds:
reminding us to embrace change
one heartbeat at a time.
Poems
By Belinda Behne, 24th October 2025
your warmth
so tender next to me
each night-
and then the gift
of another day
a quiet moment
bathed in sunlight
sharing morning tea
notes of cinnamon and clove
dance through the room
we find a woodland path
wide enough
for a wheelchair
brilliant crimsons and golds
lift us into the sky
Where Day forgets, and Night remembers
By Mehak Varun 27th October, 2025
Day opens the eyes,
a river of light
that pushes us outward—
into movement,
into wanting,
into the noise of living.
It carries us,
sometimes gently,
sometimes with a force
that burns the skin of time.
In its glare we dream of beginning,
we carve names into the air,
we believe that what we touch
might stay.
Night closes them,
a sea of dark
that pulls us inward—
into silence,
into memory,
into the weight of what cannot be spoken.
It holds us,
sometimes kindly,
sometimes with shadows
that press against the ribs.
In its hush we hear
the echo of our own pulse,
the soft confession of stars,
the truth that longing
is a form of prayer.
Day is the body reaching.
Night is the soul listening.
And between them—
the threshold.
That trembling hour
when the horizon forgets its name,
when the sky is neither flame nor ash,
when we stand inside both—
and feel ourselves stretched
between the beginning and the end.
Here,
in the tender seam of time,
we are reminded:
we are more than dust,
we are more than breath.
We are the question
day and night keep asking
of each other.
Biographies of Poets
Ketaki Mazumdar has received a number of accolades for her books Woodsmoke and Embers and Toasted Orange Embers. She was judged no.23 amongst the “Top 50 Most Influential Authors of 2021” by Delhi Wire. She was honoured as “Poet of the Year 2022” and “Poet of the Year 2024”, by Ukiyoto Publishing. She was awarded “The Creative Author” by Maharishi Vedvyas International Award for Books, by Poiesisonline. She has won the “Indian Women Achievers Award” and the “Best Poetry Book (English)” from Asian Literary Society at their 5th Lit Fest 2023 and was the recipient of the prestigious “Emily Dickenson Award 2
Snigdha Agrawal (née Banerjee), a septuagenarian writer based in Bangalore, India, was raised in a cosmopolitan environment that offered her a rich blend of Eastern and Western cultural influences. Educated in Loreto institutions under the guidance of Irish nuns, she developed a deep appreciation for literature and the written word from an early age.