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, June 2025
The Geometry of Moths: A Ballad
By Concetta Pipia 16th June 2025
She counted streetlights through the fever glass,
Each bulb a planet in her liquid sky,
When June arrived like whiskey in a flask—
Sweet burn that made her weep, she knew not why.
The pavement wrote its name in molten script,
While strangers became prophets in the shade.
A dog named Tuesday licked her fingertips
And led her to the children's lemonade.
At three o'clock the world began to bend,
Reality grew soft around the edges,
She found a door that had no other end
And stepped inside to rearrange her pledges.
The moths came out to teach her sacred math—
How light divides among the summer hungry,
How every wing contains a spiral path
Through labyrinths both beautiful and sundry.
When autumn tried to knock upon her door,
She'd learned to speak in languages of haze,
To trust the strange geometry of floor
And ceiling in those shimmering, magic days.
Haibun
By Vidya Shankar 17th June 2025
Curtain Raiser
As with every other year, we buy two mangoes that we place in the Vishukani. The first lot of the season, the skins of these mangoes are still pale yellow with patches of green, the pulp not yet the enticing aroma of ripeness, and the sweetness falls flat.
awaiting alchemy the weight of spring
Poet's Note: The setting of my haibun is on the day of Vishu, a festival celebrated in the state of Kerala as well as in some parts of the other South Indian states to mark the Spring Equinox or the onset of summer. The Vishukani mentioned in the haibun, the most important part of the tradition, is an arrangement of rice, fruits, vegetables, flowers, coins and currency notes, and a mirror, done at the family altar. This is symbolic of prosperity and good fortune. All family members view this Vishukani first thing in the morning of the festival as a reminder of renewal, reflection, and gratitude.
Mirage of Magic
By Santosh Bakya 19th June 2025
I was asleep, even snoring, I guess.
Those unsleeping were creating a mess.
Some sloshing and shoveling, away the mess.
The miasma of death choked me;
I tried to massage a crick out of my neck.
But what the heck? Wasn’t I asleep?
[And snoring too!]
But there I was, standing on a cliff.
Not fiction, but fact. My neck stiff.
I found I was the lone survivor
of a world gone awry!
I stood still, stifling a cry;
my survivor’s guilt elephantine.
The wind had a sharp edge;
No way could I escape this surrealscape.
Lying almost comatose in bed,
a part of me had crept out of me,
the stench of all-pervasive death
pushing me out of myself, sweating.
The stench crept into my nostrils,
clinging to spaces inside my skull.
I could see smoke drifting from carcasses,
charred like wood. What could I do?
Nothing! Simply nothing!
Maybe sing dirges and heartfelt tributes,
purging me of guilt?From under the sweeping boughs of a fir,
I watched the scorched earth fuming in rage.
A caged bird singing,
trying to revive the folks, their souls so dead.
I choked, wondering, was it the caged bird’s singing
awakening me to the woes of the dispossessed?
Or had the tragic invisibles of my dreams
Visibilised the world’s woes to me?
Or was it just a mirage? Maybe a touch of magic?
Shopping List for when the earth ends
By Smitha Vishwanath 20th June 2025
Walnuts, carrots, butter and some fresh cream
For the carrot cake, you love so much
A bottle of sauvignon blanc and cheddar cheese
To celebrate a life well-lived
Half a kg of prawns, grated coconut and dry red chillies
I want to cook up a meal that takes us back to our roots
Pita bread, hummus and kebabs
To honour the cities we spent our lives in
Also, a snowball for the younger one
Can’t leave without replacing the one that broke,
she cried about it for days.
A bottle of lemon-scented cologne for the older one
Let her splash as much of it as she wants,
The whole bottle, even, like there’s no tomorrow.
Some dark chocolate for the bittersweet memories
A packet of Oreos, Cheetos, marshmallows and cocoa
Let’s all be children again.
Fortuity
By Sanjeev Sethi 19th June 2025
Old hungers gnaw at your chance arrival
during the summertime. Gleed stirs up in
you my cutty-pipe image, and you laugh,
louder than required, adopting cachinnations
as a channel of expressing emotions that have
no business to be in our basket, as by now
I have met you on the pentimento of regrets.
If this sounds cavalier, let me assure you,
I understand pain. It is my portmanteau.
Biographies of Poets
Concetta Pipia was born and raised in New York City, New York. She is the founder and administrator of Aspiring Writers' Society, an online writing group. Her writing embraces both fiction and nonfiction poetry and prose. Her work has been published in numerous National and International anthologies. Her work also appears in literary magazines including: "The Raven's Perch: Adding Breath to Words," (2023), "The Wise Owl," (November, 2023, May, 2025), and "Different Truths," (2024, 2025).
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
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.
Vidya Shankar, Associate Editor for haikuKATHA journal, is author of two poetry books, freelance copy editor, and an English Language teacher. A widely-published poet, her work has appeared in prestigious collections such as the Yearbook of Indian Poetry in English and the Poetry Marathon anthologies, and her haiku longlisted for the Touchstone 2024 awards. Featured in a unique coffee table book on 50 inspiring women of Chennai, Vidya finds meaning to her life through yoga and mandalas.
Smitha Vishwanath is an ex-banker, poet, author, and artist, residing in Kenya. Smitha's poem, 'Omid', was nominated for 'Best of the Net' in 2019 and ‘Out of Order’ for the Pushcart Prize. 'Do you Have Dreams' and 'Forgotten', written for NaPoWriMo challenge hosted by Maureen Thompson, won recognition on an international level. Several of her poems have been nominated as Publication of the Month and Year by SpillWords Press. She won the Reuel International Prize in 2022, and her debut novel, Coming Home, won the Certificate of Excellence by the Asian Literary Society.
Week 4, June 2025
Summer's Touch
By Sreelekha Chatterjee 23rd June 2025
Your golden beam aids in my shine,
all across the firmament you envelop my sight.
You fling warm balls of caress—fiery and all-encompassing.
Your steamy kiss all over me—puzzling and inexorable.
Your tight, serpentine embrace—wild and prickly.
Swept by horripilation, goose pimples run up my spine.
My face crimson, blushing;
inside me is molten passion red-hot,
smoldering in the profound flame,
my heart is ready to bathe in the soothing shower.
When the drunken bees swarm,
build their treasure troves of love,
my eyes water as inebriate I am—
emotions brimming, overflowing but tears of doubt.
Akin to the sunflower that stands tall,
a tippler of your flambeaux, dons your grace,
my eyes wander around always in search of you.
My moments absorbed in your thoughts,
but my inside is green,
as you are never entirely for me.
Mesmerizing that you are, I endure your warmth,
for your every hot breath teaches tranquility of love.
My starry nights are lonely with no respite,
I rise with you at every flight of dawn.
My love for you will never be spent,
on every summer day so I shall proclaim.
Gloom
by Kastutika Mishra
Blowing up the reverie of gloomy mornings,
Lighting the diya at my entrance doorsteps,
Wiping the floor of the pooja corner with sandalwood water,
Dusting the walls and drawers off with my sweaty palms,
Labor on the cycle while holding the placard of hardwork trudging before my street road smiled at me,
Sweat of the housemaid cleaning utensils on the road,
Her torn saree wet with soapy water and her blouse revealing her glistening calf muscles, made up for the loaded thoughts in my mind,
Wherein lies the mound of truth and open hearted discussion?
Where do we go and search for translation of our sorrows and fear?
Given the fact that one overhears that wishes come true and viscera of victory lounges in living rooms, award podiums,
Do we really appreciate what we have got? We, are seen on social media, wowed for our superb performances and mourn at the death of fake people,
Moved by repetitive copying of each other's pieces of art!
We establish the hole to the abyss as the highest pedestal of glory!
We, AI generated humans, count ourselves superior than 98% of the world.
New England Summer
By Sreya Sarkar 25th June, 2025
Summer comes to this part of the world quietly
After a severe winter and a shallow spring
Like a coy bride, tiptoeing down the hills
Caressing historic homes and estates
As a boisterous Blue Jay announces her arrival on a crystal morning
She waits at the foot of the grand oak
Sighing at memories of being slighted with a knowing smile
Watchful of chipmunks and beavers
Gathering nuts and roots beside the gurgling brook
She bewitches the mellow sun with her gaze
Her pale love deepening silently
Ripening strawberries and peaches
Steering the vacationing children to the beaches
Drunk on sticky nectar, the bee hums her song
That knowing smile returns as stupor spreads through the veins
Time comes to a standstill in the haze of the rising heat
But she never hogs it all; she is generous
She shares with the clouds growing heavy with rain
Allowing respite with the occasional showers
She doesn’t feel the need to be shrill to dominate
She lies on beaches with the warm sand and is just herself, content
As autumn takes over in October, she relinquishes the land
Knowing that she will return to claim her calm glory again
Mirage
By Belinda Behne 26th June 2025
Peering through
the morning haze
rising from the river
I think I catch
a glimpse of her
dressed in all her finery
Moving slowly
full of grace
she is there
and then she's gone
not even a footprint
remains in the sand
****
in the city
the summer heat
rises in waves
off the pavement
birds hide in the treetops
until dusk
children play
in an open hydrant
bodies cooled
by laughter
waterspray and rainbows
When Silence Met the Fire
By Mehak Varun 27th June 2025
Heat rose up, a quiet flame,
It touched my skin, it knew my name.
Not anger yet, just something near—
A whisper sharp enough to sear.
Hate came next, with steady eyes,
It wore no mask, it told no lies.
It bloomed where love had lost its place,
A bitter flower in empty space.
Then came chance, with careless hands,
It scattered dreams like broken sand.
No reason why, no grand design—
Just twisted paths that crossed with mine.
But still I stand, though winds have blown,
Through fires lit by seeds unknown.
If heat returns, and hate walks past—
I'll hold my ground, and breathe…
…at last.
Biographies of Poets
Sreelekha Chatterjee is a poet from New Delhi, India. Her poems have appeared in Madras Courier, Setu, Verse-Virtual, The Wise Owl, Ghudsavar Literary Magazine, Porch Literary Magazine, Orenaug Mountain Poetry Journal, Creative Flight, Pena Literary Magazine, Everscribe, and in the anthologies—Light & Dark (Bitterleaf Books, UK), Whose Spirits Touch (Orenaug Mountain Publishing, USA), and Christmas-Winter Anthology Volume 4 (Black Bough Poetry, Wales, UK), among others.
Kasturika Mishra is a multilingual poet living in Puri as well as Ghaziabad. She is a avid reader of people's mind and society and writes on real issues. She also has been a cataloging librarian for the Library of Congress, USA. She is a singer, composer and lyricist for rare and little known literary gems.She writes dance review for www.narthaki.com.
Sreya Sarkar is an author and journalist based in Massachusetts, contributing political and social articles to Indian and US newsmagazines such as Scroll and American Kahani. She is the author of the novel “Beneath the Veneer,” which was published last year. She has also co-authored a poetry book titled “The Same Sky.”
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
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.
Last Week, June 2025
Breath Between Endings
by Snigdha Agrawal 28th June 2025
Mornings breathe freshness
but now it’s wonder that lingers,
sunlight spreading quiet fingers
turning miasma on glass panesinto patterns of gold leaf
Silence even hums with promise
Heat rises still…
but it’s the warmthof something taking shape
Haze clings, not to conceal,
but to soften the ache
of wounds long buried
Where once union was denied,
now it arrives in small gestures,
an accidental brush of hands,
a shared glance across coffee cups,
weaving themselves
into something wholly unplanned.
And truth drifts in…
Not all endings are endings
Some simply match the seasons
like merging of birth stars,
a start of something unnamed,
but a beginning all the same.
Mangoes, Mischief & Memory
By Ritu Kamra Kumar 30th June, 2025
Golden days in a mango mist,
Summer’s kiss too sweet to resist.
Cots became our cave-bound ships,
Books and dreams on mango-dripped lips.
Grandma’s fridge held stolen gold,
Juice-trails marked the brave and bold.
Courtyard rang with barefoot cheer,
We rhymed and raced with no veneer.
Ghost tales stirred at twilight's gate,
Fright and laughter danced with fate.
Lichi raids and scolded glee,
We wore our guilt rebelliously.
Rainstorms broke with thunder’s beat,
We floated dreams on drenched bedsheets.
Now scrolls replace the rooftop sky,
Where digital summers drift and die.
Yet mango stains and soil remain,
Etched in heart like sweet refrain.
O summer’s song, both wild and wise,
You burn, then bloom, in memory’s skies.
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Biographies of Poets
