Επιμέλεια: Εύα Πετροπούλου Λιανού
Biography: Tanja Ajtic was born in Belgrade, Serbia. She lived and studied in Serbia at the Faculty of Philology-Department of Serbian Language and Literature. Since 2002, she lives and creates in Canada, Vancouver. Moved to Belgrade, Serbia in summer 2023. She is a member of many groups and associations. Her poems and stories have been published two hundred collections (books), anthologies, electronic books and magazines. Her poems have been published in English, Serbian, Chinese, Croatian, Iraqi, Bengali, Indian, Bulgarian, Tunisian, Arabic. In the spring of 2018, at the “Pegasus” competition of the Literary Youth of Serbia, Belgrade, she won the award for printing the first book of poetry “Outlines of Love”. Her book was exhibited at the Book Fair in 2018 in Belgrade, as well as at the Book Salon in Toronto in 2019. She is represented in the Anthology among the 30 best writers for 2020 by the Association of Writers of Australia. She won first place, the award of authors from abroad in the Federation of BiH (2020) and the second prize in Great Britain from the Serbian Library in London. Participated in book fairs with collections and anthologies with other authors. Won III World Prize for Excellence “Cesar Vallejo” 2021 in the category of artistic excellence, Peru, by the World Spanish Union of Writers and International Award of Excellence, “Cita Del Galateo” Antonio De Ferrariis, IX edition 2022 – Rome, Italy, prestigious prize for a group of poets in the English language; winners of Foundation Naji Naaman literary prize 2023; winning the 2023 “Zheng Nian Cup” Literary Award – Third Prize by the Beijing Mindfulness Literature Museum. She is the winner of many awards, diplomas and certificate. She is currently writing poetry, short stories, haiku, gogyoshi poetry as well as graphics artist as a freelance artist. Hers art graphic were published in books and magazines.
Oh, love
Oh, love, almighty love,
you who lift us up
to the heavenly heights
and the one who breaks us on
hard ground, scatter us.
Oh, love, strong sincere love,
where we surrender before you,
where all the secrets we reveal,
where we become innocent,
children.
Love, where everything revolves around us,
both the world and we in the world,
in a whirlwind, in happiness indescribable,
in the sorrow we haven’t gotten over you
hold us and with a scream of pleasure
you fill our chests
and with a scream of pain we die with you.
Oh, love…
There’s no indifference there,
no mediocrity, no lies,
sincere love,
there’s no pretending,
there we get crushed by emotions,
passion,
there we completely give ourselves,
there we give ourselves in eruptions
of all we have ever felt.
Love, you who move the world,
you who are the originator of everything,
someone and sin,
you rule hearts
and we cannot resist you…
Because we always want you, love.
And you come suddenly,
you come when we don’t expect you,
there, around the corner,
you’re lurking and when you meet us,
when you surprise us,
to you we are left only,
and ready to everything share
with the other
loved being,
we are ready for sacrifices
and heroism,
for great words that come
from our lips,
from our belly and heart,
from the throat, from the body,
in vibrating sounds,
in a time that cannot be
waited any more,
we’re eager to see what brings
a new day, and this now,
this now in love,
in this present time
of, maybe, losers…
Oh, love,
almighty love,
mercy we ask you for,
may your light last
as long
as possible
in this, our, darkness.
Burlesque
You’re good in a comedy
where the main actor is tasked with causing laughter.
And like a burlesque without any goal
you exaggerate in everything.
You see people like in cartoons
and you represent real comedy.
For you, everything is a farce, a joke and a prank.
And if there are tears…
You belonged, you joke with everything
and where it shouldn’t be.
You are like a predator of the sea.
You have laxity in understandings and questions of morality
You are sloppy in everything. Everything is funny to you.
You have a flaw, a gap in everything you write
and what you say even if you know the art of speaking.
And if you wanted to cheat life
and avoid the pain that sometimes exists
running away from worries by mocking everything.
But know, arrive, it’s not funny.
And you won’t avoid that, but be prepared
Life!
Ode of Joy
of life and birth
everything
in the world
they were already composing
many
and only with the heart
it can be seen
and feel
message of
love.
What I feel
writing songs,
it is not in silence,
only
where does it start
and ends everything
that is the silent one
a human being
and it permeates the whole
always
in every breath
and a sigh
creation of the world and
universe.
She doesn’t sleep
she is already forever awake
and warns
that it is biting,
like a heart biting…
Look at the stars
in the heart
and pick up the stone
and you will see life
it is everywhere.
Explainable
is inexplicable
and everything is impossible are
possible…
Just feel it
and connect with
love,
universal love,
what she is
first and foremost
from one God
given.
Cosmos,
without beginning and end,
and it compresses and expands
expands and contracts
all according to God’s will.
That they created you
and me
they live in love.
Loneliness
Thin is the connection between
all those who were and were not, vague.
Relying on the ideals of the past,
I spread the story of imperfection.
I call my exes for salvation,
and I feel the coldness of the earthen wall.
Don’t tell me what to do, loneliness is biting my toenails.
Not about poise, because I’m going to start
begging for friendship.
The corpse pushed me into oblivion of my path.
And there is no more place for me in any horde. I am alone.
Don’t tell me anything, you can’t help me because
it’s a dark world in which he struggles. My nights are sad.
All my former and forgotten things and stories.
All my former and forgotten friends, are gone.
Unknown faces are walking the streets,
where I don’t recognize anyone from the past,
and I knew quite a few of them.
At the familiar name, a spark in my heart ignites,
and I remember everything that was.
And I remain alone with despair, if I could. But I didn’t.
Forgotten for years.
Buried in four walls, in four white walls,
in the square, at the intersection of the tearful streets
and the weeping sky.
You come to the infinity of dissatisfaction.
I hear the blunt impact of the skull against the white wall.
It doesn’t hurt.
I struggle with the fog and in the murky water of time.
Will I die alone or will I sprout?
