Ivan Gaćina was born on April 15, 1981 in Zadar, the Republic of Croatia.
Upon completion of the graduate studies in Business Computing at the University of Dubrovnik in 2010, he received the academic degree of Master in Computer Engineering and the cum laude honor.
He is currently a high school teacher of electrical engineering.
He writes poetry (including haiku), short stories, aphorisms, and book reviews. He is a member of many associations and societies. His work has been translated into several foreign languages, and he has received more than 100 awards at literary competitions, in his country and abroad.
At the International Roma Poetry Festival “Tamo gde Sava ljubi Dunav” (“There Where the Sava Kisses the Danube”), Belgrade, September 28, 2019, he was awarded the “Slobodan Berberski” award for his lifetime achievement in literary work by the Association of Roma Writers.
He is the author of three poetry books: “Tebe traži moja rima” (KC Kalliopa, Našice, Croatia, 2014), “Tvorac misli / prolaznik u noći” (SVEN, Niš, Serbia, 2015) and “Okovani prokletstvom” (IK “Rrom produkcija” & Roma Writers Association, Belgrade, Serbia, 2018).
His work is also included in over 300 collections and in a number of literary journals.
Chained by Damnation
The poor stuck
in the tents
in a forgotten
sooty alley.
From all sides
hustle and bustle
of hungry people.
The sound of violin breaks
the night's silence,
uncertainty everywhere.
A blind fortune-teller
predicts the future,
a wooden carriage
waits for better days.
As if time has stopped.
The rich dream of
non-existent
happiness,
chained by damnation,
they live someone else's sins.
Sown Seeds of Love
Peace doesn't grow by itself,
it's a human being who sows seeds of his future,
and from every seed of love
can sprout the fruit of a new life,
better and more beautiful than this of ours.
When a man lives for his close relatives,
a thousand suns flame thrives in him
burning the worlds of icy darkness,
and the Earth awakes in its magnificent gown
intertwined with the beauty of its essence.
While on the human destiny path
the bells ring from many unknown worlds,
we are to listen to the voice of our heart
courageously spreading peace throughout the world.
Spring in My Veins
While the robin mixes life colors with its beak
and vernalagnia releases a wisp of heat
a magic stream sorts out visions of a new beginning
carried by an express train into the unknown.
Sadness disappears between the winding verses
raising fallen people to a blooming pedestal
while pictures from life flow in crystal honey
crowned with secret worlds of frondescence.
While valentining birds open presents of love
unending dreams of empires travel on flying rugs,
and zillions of desires, encapsulated in flower petals,
dance reverdie for mother nature.
Swallows sail through reveilles of the Chelidonian wind
while butterflies, flying in a zigzag pattern, form heart-shaped ribbons
and spring peacefully circulates through my veins
flowing into the lake expanse of the agape love.
On the Road Branching from an Endless Highway
Teachers are timeless treasurers
using golden keys to unlock the codes
of nature secret rooms
hiding the unexplored worlds of knowledge.
Every classroom is a separate highway branch,
endless and magnificent in its essence,
as every teacher, passing through the completely same classroom,
leads his students along different paths of cognition.
Sometimes we sail across the ocean,
climb the mountains higher than the Himalayas,
or go down the sun's golden ladder
into the fantastic world of dwarves and elves.
Teachers place high standards,
not to make them difficult for us to reach,
but that we can jump over the obstacles
and shine in our full glory.
Their words travel through the unknown
when they overcome the most difficult challenges,
and when they turn a new page
pigeons carry our thoughts on the wings of reality.
Teachers are talented artists
who break down the whole into meaningful components,
there are no unattainable goals for them
and they teach us that all people are equal.
Through the Transcendental Pendulum Vibrations
Between a sapphire sky and rippling waters of life
the Queen Earth, dressed in a rich gown, arranges her whirling hair
as she watches her unruly vassals through the side mirror
destroying centuries-old metropolises buried in her bosom.
Stellar jewelry adorns her gloomy face under the sky
as she, sitting on the throne, tailors future with kaleidoscopic crystals,
and a scintillating sun illuminates cradles of ancient civilizations
furrowing myriads of human destiny snaking paths.
According to designs made by fallen astronauts long ago,
the court scribes alter boundaries of eternity
while, under the veil of mystery, triumphal shapes of rainbows emerge
with the wind humming a lullaby to the frosty grammar on the miracle mountain.
People realized too late that they are only chess pawns
driven by exogenous forces on the temptation board
while the seasons change their life flow in a chaotic schedule
in order to continually restore the blood image of the universe queen.
Between the scattered cliffs, sirens’ song lures the poets – dreamers
into a labyrinth of blooming sea shells branching into the unknown
while a somnolent old man catches fish at multidimensional port sunk in silver
so that transcendental pendulum can slide down the spiral passageways of bucolic dreams.
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