POEM BY ZDENKA MLINAR
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POEM BY ZDENKA MLINAR
Zdenka Mlinar lives and works in Zagreb and Velika Gorica, (Croatia). Writes poetry and prose, reviews and short texts (miniature lyrics, aphorisms, haiku). She published ten independent collections of poems and is a member of several literary societies and associations.
Her works have been published in more than 200 domestic and foreign magazines, collections and anthologies, and she has received a number of awards, recognitions, certificates of appreciation, trophies and medals for her work.
Her haiku poems are represented in the bilingual anthology of Croatian haiku poetry "Uncut Sky 2" (2008 - 2018) and in the New Anthology "Modern Croatian Haiku, 2023". She is registered in the World Register of the Haiku Foundation and has been in the TOP 100 haiku poets of Europe for 5 years in a row. She is also the literary editor and secretary of the Velika Gorica "Spark" Artists' Association and the original founder and president of the Zagreb Literary Club "Ilija Kozić Ladin" as well as the FB group of the same name, with whose members she organizes poetry events in honor of the great poet.
PRAYER
This is our prayer to you, Lord of Creation,
To give us enlightenment and absolution.
So we can ignite a sparkle of hope in the dark,
Bestow on the forsaken a healing spark…
Your love is grand and almighty to us,
Fire is burning in broken hearts,
Amen is in prayers of new daylights.
CONFESSION
Confession. It’s not easy to bare yourself,
To place your pain or luck on a table
And watch the feast which would hurt.
To seek solace in belief that cruelty,
Thirst and brotherly hatred are fed,
To spin wearily in thatm mill…
Since the days of yoree mbers of that lava burn unquenched,
Smothering empathy in its smoke,
Extinguishing flames of candles burnt out.
That confession… Well, it hurts. It hurts!
Prepared Angela Kosta Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator
