Ivan Marovic

Striving for the Spirit: Academy Press Poetry Chapbook Prize 2021 Ivan Marovic

This poetry chapbook covers a wide diversity of themes. From the creative writing issues and struggling for the artistic values, over growing up, understanding the world to death and the afterlife. Both lyrical tone and narrative style are traversing into new forms of expression. Some poetic lines take the form of practical advice. Few poems explore the human mind. Some poems reflect on the western influence on modern culture by technology. Music and film, as art forms, rely strongly on electronic components. Internet is a theme of one composition. The deepness of the content overcomes the usual shortness of the chapbook. The main goal of this collection is to awaken the spirit. It means spreading the natural view to a whole new level. The poem Worlds Within is a showcase for this. Its content is the liberation of the soul. Christian spirituality is put side by side to widespread materialism, which these verses are trying to overcome. This poetry collection won the Academy Press poetry chapbook contest in the emerging category in 2021. (academypress.org/contest/)