Disovizija 2025: My First Public Poetry Recital

Disovizija is an annual event hosted by the Čačak City Library to promote poetry among youth. In this year’s event, I was given the opportunity to read one of my works to live audience for the very first time.

Reading poetry out loud is an entirely different experience to reading to yourself. Poetic language isn’t always rational and predictable, and there’s something about hearing it out loud that makes you slow down a little, hang on longer to each word and appreciate its artistic courage even more.

It isn’t easy, either. Reciting a poem is a joint experience between the narrator and the audience. The narrator has to understand the poem well in order to know when to pause, how to intonate, how to make understanding the current line while keeping the previous line lingering in the audience’s memory as effortless as possible. The best recital is always the one where the narrator understands, loves and immerses themself in the poem they’re reading. Enthusiasm can’t be artificial on stage.

I was more fortunate than most in this regard: one’s own work is the easiest to recite. There’s nothing to struggle to understand or wonder about when it’s your very own work.

That didn’t mean practice wasn’t necessary. Along with several other students selected to recite that day and guided by professor of literature Ana Ranđić, we met several times to rehearse our pieces and perfect the event plan in an empty classroom inside the Gymnasium high school in Čačak.

I know what you’re thinking, and yes, I did nearly faint from stage fright sitting in front of our humble audience when the day finally came. It was only my poetry that kept me calm and focused. All I tried to think of was what inspired my work, why I’d written it and who I’d written it for. Only such grand and inspiring things could have carried me, a hopeless introvert, through such an ordeal. And, of course, the kindness and understanding of everyone who worked with me following up to the event. Their consideration and enthusiasm was an inspiration in itself.

The poem chosen for the event was a translated excerpt of my longer poem Proleće, meaning Spring in Serbian. During my volunteer work at the Libary, my mentor and several other librarians worked with me to translate the final part, Proleće from beneath stars, into Serbian. The result, thanks to their input, felt much more satisfying and original than I had expected possible for a translation. Special thanks to Ms. Marija Radulović, Ms. Tanja Vuković and my mentor Ms. Nataša Krivačević Popović for their time and assistence in translating my work.

The first half of the event was dedicated to 2024 Young Dis Award laureate Simona Dmitrović and her poetry collection Osim šumskog požara. Also present at the event were Gymnasium high school students Arijana Sofija Timotijević, Natalija Ćurčić and Mateja Bošković, while the music played intermittently throughout the program was performed by the incredibly talented Gymnasium graduate Luka Spasojević.

I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the City Library of Čačak for giving me the opportunity to participate in the event, as well as to everyone else who helped me along the way, from the friends who patiently read everything I write to those who, by simply being a part of my life, encourage and inspire me more than they will ever know.