Poem ‘Spaces’ from the latest book Fragile, broken and other ways of becoming whole.
Poetry review by Darija Mataic Agičić
‘Bistra set out to observe the world from the sunniest city in Macedonia, the city of poetry, the Miladinovci brothers, Crni Drim, the bridges... And in less than 40 years, she bridges some imaginary, denied, and real bridges, in the incurable disease of the truth, in a rarefied world. In that Sagan style, within the pale blue dot (synonymous with the Earth), she travelled by word or step to Vienna, Skopje, Johannesburg, Ljubljana, Uganda, Bali, Peru, Slovenia, Austria, Nepal, Africa, the Arctic, Asia... A poetic travelogue. In her poetry, Bistra splits herself and heals herself. And she did not conquer those worlds, but herself in them.
As a postmodernist poet, Bistra associates with Polish Nobel laureate Olga Nawojava Tokarczuk, postmodern feminist Susan Hekman, French writer and philosopher Albert Camus, Irish writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch, American Buddhist nun and writer Pema Chödrön, Nigerian thinker and public intellectual Bayo Akomolofe.
‘Spaces’ is a poem that captures the need for opening and holding space, not only for imagination but for each other.’
See the poetry book Fragile, broken and other ways of becoming whole bellow.
Brought to you by https://bistrakumbar.gumroad.com/l/lsjzu?fbclid=IwAR0_iCyEtlRo1jidWKxsejjvet0erlWRfx8NGyfVWDGErbPEECEyOq84Nbo
The project is part of the subthemes Future prospects and Connect not divide.
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Author
Bistra Kumbaroska

Bistra Kumbaroska opened her eyes for the first time in 1984, in the city of poetry, Struga (N. Macedonia). As a social innovator, entrepreneur and a poetess, Bistra supports individuals, organisations and companies in combining innovative tools for engaging with the world today, and making it better for all. She graduated in the department for English literature at the Faculty of Philology in Skopje. Her post-graduate studies focused on social innovation. In 2011, she published her first book of poetry in Macedonian titled You don't like poetry. Since then, her poems have been published and translated in 7 languages across Europe and Africa. In 2020, she co-aurhored her first online poetry book Fullstop, combining poetry in Macedonian, Slovenian and English. In 2022, she piblished her first poetry book in English and Croatian, titled Fragile, broken and other ways of becoming whole.
Her experience and love for poetry have been shared at numerous international events and festivals, incl. her latest TEDxtalk What makes your heart beat? At the moment, she lives and re-creates worlds in Vienna, co-managing an agency for positive impact Heartbeats Innovation & Communication.