Ivana Gadjanski's Poetry
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Ivana Gadjanski's Poetry
By Melissa Pandika
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By Melissa Pandika
Throughout her career, Gadjanski continued to write poetry — until her father died of heart failure in 2012. “It was very hard,” she said quietly. She put down her pen, refusing to pick it up again for almost two years. When she did, the poems tumbled out uncontrollably. Her poetry today reminds her of her father’s book, Letters to Nothing , a collection of poems addressed to dead 19th-century poets. “Now I’m writing to nothingness, like my father will somehow be able to read this,” she said.
Citing Edgar Allan Poe among her favorite poets — for his “darkness” and willingness to “deal with tough emotions” — Gadjanski still jots down poems in short, spontaneous bursts whenever that familiar nagging feeling strikes, often but not always about biology. Although they don’t conform to a rigid structure, she thinks her scientific background helps keep them condensed.
Take a look at some of her original poetry below.
CENTRIFUGE
Like music
Like claws
Like a narrow canyon
It grabs you
It holds you
It takes the best of you
To press you to pellet
To dust and pebbles
To sounds of crickets
In starry night
SYMPHONY
Do you want me
To tell you
What it is like
To live in total
Silence
In total darkness
Of the sound
To only remember
Scattered beats
Buzz of the world
To only feel distant pulses
Of your own heart
Your own drum
In bony cage
Collect the bones
Deep from within
Pump up the truth
And dark libido
Mix the marrow of lust
With these meaningless
Words
And wait
Simply wait
For Nature
To take its own course.
BUILDING BLOCKS
Sharp words
And soft tissues
Pointy teeth
And tender loins
Deep down
Self-replicating
Always dividing
Mixing and crossing
Selfish and ruthless
Simply existing
Surviving.
- Melissa Pandika Contact Melissa Pandika