FOUR SPACES: Poems from Asia, Africa and Europe

By editors

CAIRO: The Silk Road Literature Series has recently published a poetic anthology written by four poets: Eva Petropoylou Lianoy (Greece), Mbizo Chirasha (Zimbabwe), Santosh Kumar Pokharel (Nepal) and Ashraf Aboul-Yazid (Egypt).

Entitled “Four Spaces”, the anthology joins series in its digital form, following the printed version in paper.

In this issue, Greek poet and writer Eva Petropoylou Lianoy continues her writings on love and peace.

In her poem “Destiny”, she writes: “I forget my life before poetry, Leaving between the verses, Music gave me a message, Writing gave me a purpose.”

Eva was born in Xylokastro where she completed her basics studies. She loved journalism and attended journalism lessons at the ANT1 School. In 1994, she worked as a journalist in French newspaper “Le Libre Journal”, but her love for Greece won and returned to her sunny home.

Since 2002, she has been living and working in Athens. She works as a web radio producer reading fairy tales at radio logotexniko vima every Sunday. She is responsible for the children literary section in Vivlio anazitiseis publications in Cyprus, publication agent of 30 Birds in UK.

From Nepal, comes Santosh Kumar Pokharel. He is a multilingual poet, editor and translator. He writes in Nepali, English, Hindi and Russian. His poems have been translated and published in 17 languages so far. Pokharel, a senior civil engineer by profession, completed his Masters in engineering from peoples’ Friendship University Moscow. His poetic journey started from the age of 13.

He was recognized with International Award of the Year 2018 for the Creative Writing from Mahatma Gandhi Welfare Society and Education Foundation Aurangabad, Maharastra India. He had also represented Nepal in the 39th World Congress of Poets in Bhubaneshwar.

In “Four Spaces”, his poem “YOUR LIGHT WASN’T THERE” shows the suffering of a creative person.

“I wrote your poem, The poem flowed smoothly, Open without music, Scattered with the flow along the rock and across, Only your voice was not there. And it poured in a stream but was empty, Had speed supposedly, there was no energy, There was no part of the beauty, The poem fell like a haystack, Leaving dignity aside, Like an indecent clown from the theater, From some far and wide.”

Another suffering is told by the African poet from Zimbabwe, Mbizo Chirasha.

It is the sufferings of his country and continent, as he writes in “Black Oranges” for Africa and her people.

“Xenophobia my son, I hear a murmur in the streets, A babble of adjoining markets, Your conscience itching with guiltiness like, Genital leprosy, Your wide eyes are cups where tears never fall, When they fall the storm wash down bullet drains and garbage cities ‘ Come nomzano with your whisper to drown, Blood scent stinking the rainbow altar. Darfur, petals of blood spreading, Perfume of death choking slum nostrils, Slums laden with acrid smell of mud and, Debris smelling like fresh dungs heaps, Fear scrawling like lizards on Darfur skin, Kibera. I see you scratching your mind like ragged linen, Smelling the breath of slums and diesel fumes, The smoke puffing out through ghetto ruins is the fire dousing the emblem of the state.”

Chirasha is an African Contributor Poet / Essayist at Monk Arts and Soul Magazine (UK). He has published his poems in tens of publications worldwide; including Ditch Poetry (Alberta University, Creative Writing, Canada), Poetry Potion ( Canada), Full of Crow (Canada), Scarlet Leaf (Canada), Poetry Soup (USA), Poem Hunter (USA), One Ghana One Voice (Ghana), Rhythm International Voices (Canada), AfricanWriter.com (Nigeria), Ovi Magazine (Finland), Atunis Galatica (edited Agron Shele, Belgium), Black WellPoetry Pamplhet (Oxford School of Poetry, UK), Lit net (South Africa), Ofi Press ( Mexico City), Fem  Asia Magazine (UK), Ink Sweat and Tears (UK) and Squack back (USA).

The theme of maps concludes the anthology with Ashraf Aboul-Yazid poems: “Maps of the Mirage”, as in his piece “A Map for Google’s Sons”: “You are just a few points and lines. You are colors left in some corners and circles.

Nothing could identify you; no heart pulses, no breast Breathes, and no words. You are the sons of a research engine; you are numbers and letters, Typed on the maps of «Google».”

Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is an Egyptian poet, novelist and journalist born in 1963. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Silk Road Literature Series.

He has been working in Cultural Journalism for more than 30 years. He authored and translated 35 books. Some of his novels and poetry volumes have been translated into English, Spanish, Turkish, Persian, Korean, Malayalam, Sindhi and German books and anthologies. He was chosen the Man of Culture for the Year, 2012, Tatarstan, Russia. He won Manhae Prize in Literature, 2014, the Republic of Korea. He won the Arab Journalism Award in Culture, 2015, UAE. Currently he is the President of Asia Journalist Association.

The new anthology is available on ISSUU for free reading: https://issuu.com/ashrafaboul-yazid/docs/four_spaces_