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Dimitar Anakiev

Saša Važić, muddy shoes candy heart (Peaks Press, 202 Merrywood Drive, Forest, Virginia 24551, USA). Edited by Anita Virgil. The author reads her poems in English. They are accompanied by photography and music of the Balkans. The CD concludes with a brief movie version. $20.00 incl. S&H. Order by check or money order payable to Anita Virgil; e-mail: [email protected]

muddy shoes candy heart – an English e-book by Saša Važić, likewise all her other haiku creative work, encompasses the narrow borders of literature and bears a phenomenological significance. Her literature work, in the form of her clear and loud female voice, reflects her fight against resignation and finds its topic in common and everyday events and occurrences.

I am especially fascinated by her complete devotion to haiku literature. It appears that Saša realizes an old haiku literature ideal of a haiku as a spiritual practice. She bridges the worlds, exceeds local and cultural stereotypes and lives on through the flickering of her poems. It seems that her poems are not meant for selection but rather for a complete identification with life – for empathy, she shows even toward a dry life on the doormat:

Wiping my muddy shoes 
at my flat's door – 
a dry leaf.

Tolmin, 10/3/2006

Translation: Saša Važić