Review of the Poetry Collection "Dawn of Joy" by Marina Matić
Love is the brightest scope of human existence and the gentlest touch bestowed by nature. It is the most delicate caress of the soul, akin to the way a bee caresses a flower, thus enhancing and multiplying life for both oneself and others, often without awareness. Love is the secret of life. Love is love! In it, everyone can "stand joyfully," as the poet Marina Matić expressed in her poem "Joy." Joy is to live when there is love within.
In her poetry collection "Dawn of Joy," Marina reveals and interprets all the intensity of love that a person possesses, yet sometimes conceals, treating it like a secret that must not be revealed, yet it undeniably gives meaning to the life of an entirely normal being. The sincerity evident in this collection embodies the kindness of human nature and the sweetness of life, sometimes sorrowful, and yet the secret of human existence. The sufferings endured due to love are an integral part, more or less, of the complex human personality. This complexity is a reflection of a person's ability to love, and the more suffering is reflected, the more capable the human being is of mourning for what is lost or unattainable. In this context, longings or desires for something better, happier, something that brings hope for higher aspirations, are significant. Through this collection of tender poems by Marina Matić, this is powerfully illustrated.
A poet is an artist of a robust life, who, instead of a brush or an instrument, transforms their art into beneficial words, sometimes full of joy and sometimes turned into visual metaphors, yet entirely comprehensible. The poet's observations are akin to those of a painter, and both offer their observations to us so that we can experience them with our being, immerse ourselves in the beauty of life, and view life from a more realistic perspective. However, only the poet and the painter can reveal certain general traits and rules of life. Hence, it can be argued that poetry is a divine blessing. Marina beautifully confirms this with her poem "Sacred Moments":
"I observe the play of colors spilled by the sun,
which retires for the night.
The sky is enchanted by the red,
kissed by autumn leaves,
not yet fallen.
Everything glows in several sacred moments,
like in a temple..."
The metaphorical depiction of the ecstasy of a good soul, the poet transforms strongly into the wind that leads to joyful dives and, in the poem "Wind," carries her into hopes without which human life would be senseless:
"The wind carries me into your arms,
in summer evenings with you,
into the embrace of your kisses,
into loyalty,
with which you gently place me on the bed of your soul..."
In the poem "Joy," she exclaims:
"Come, and tell me that in love,
I can stand joyfully."
Therefore, without hope and without yearnings for the brightness of life, there is no joy. In Marina Matić's poems, there are always those three pillars of life - faith, hope, and love.
A human being is the only being on this earth that believes in something, and without hope, life would be meaningless, colorless, and without enchantment. Our poet transforms love into the most delicate colors, into refined enchantments, making it reachable only in the "eternal kiss." Through her poems, she often calls on us to join her and, together with her, enjoy and suffer for something that is only a desire, or just something brilliant, within reach, yet elusive like a dream we can't quite grasp.
In "Colors," she paints those states that are often a reflection of our hesitations, saying:
"Why did I see the picture in the unreal garden?
I enter; scents draw into me.
I do not distinguish colors;
they have all merged with me.
As if I stepped into the dream of a lover
and forgot the path leading to morning..."
She continues this theme in another poem, "Harmony," where she continues to dream of that wonderful picture, saying:
"Close your eyes
and watch the dream that tells the story of us.
Open your heart
and let love open it gently
and unite it with the timeless.
Let it shine on it the image of pure joy..."
In another poem, she becomes a flower and watches a bee gently caressing her, revealing the longing for caresses:
"Why are you looking at me with such longing?
What has blossomed in your heart?
Do the petals smell of melancholy,
or do painful sighs implore you?"
In the poem "Revelation," she repeats the desire for tenderness:
"If you are revealed in me,
do it slowly,
undress every part of me with gentle touches.
At first, let the words flow like a spring river;
say them easily,
wash away with them the unhealed wounds in me..."
And then, as if in a continuation of dreams from the poem "Colors," the poet sees witnesses to her secrets in the poem "Doe," using metaphorical events:
"The doe looks at me;
the grass whispers.
Lilac wraps around my waist.
A bird flutters,
takes flight.
Jasmine smells intoxicatingly;
I see your eyes."
An artist's experience in creating a work, and each poem is a complete work, gains its material meaning in its own way, which is communicated to the enjoyer of the work, i.e., the reader, in some tangible way. Every art has its execution technique, and a poet places their work in their own way of performing. They may write a poem presented in prose, or stylistically shaped to suggest it as a recitation, or, conversely, arranged in verses that rhyme, which may be sung, musical, etc. In recent times, the technique of writing poetry is not as crucial, but rather the way of expressing thoughts as they arrange themselves with their own thoughts during pauses. By expressing their internal quivering, poets believe that, by the interruptions of their words, they have indicated how what they were expressing in verses should be read and thus how the acceptance of the poet's suffering or joy should be. The Roman poet Horace, even in his time, pointed out the misunderstanding of how poetry should be expressed, saying:
"Everyone practices their trade as they learned;
we, on the other hand,
all without exception - learned and unlearned,
invited and uninvited - write poems."
And our poet Marina Matić has mastered her craft well. She doesn't give up on her feelings and the fire within when composing her verses, and she arranges them just as they fall from her soul onto paper. Moreover, they are so intricately structured that it would be a great sin to rearrange or change individual words to cater to someone's taste. That would only diminish the beauty of expression and the emotional utterance that emanates from the poet's thoughts.
Especially, it would diminish the magnitude and artistic significance if someone wanted to express their whims in the poem "Colors," and even more disastrously with the very sensitive and thoughtfully rapturous poem "Quiet Place." The essence of the cliché - faith, hope, love - would be lost.
Flipping through the discovered poetic achievements of the young writer Marina Matić, I see that we will always be honored with exceptional pleasure flipping through and reading her well-arranged thoughts. Already, her strong literary success is evident.
Miloš Mišo Anđelić, writer
