The statement "Maybe that room was his home, his room and everything what left from it is a wall and a fly" made me think about how an intelligent young child must feel when something senseless like bombing changes their life. After reading your essay, I searched for more of Simic's poetry to read because you found a way to make his words make sense. The same is true for Tadijanovic's poetry, because your essay pointed out so many interesting connections between his work and Simic's. By choosing to highlight Tadijanovic's beautiful poem "Evening Over the City," you showed how one man's memories of warfare and conflict in their childhood can differ from another. When you discussed the concept...

Both Simic and Tadijanovic were affected deeply by nostalgia for their homelands, and you showed how their poetry contains clues to these deep feelings of regret and mourning. One question I was left with after reading your essay was how these poets might be able to reconcile the horrors of their past with the modern progress occurring in Serbia and Croatia today. Should poets like Simic and Tadijanovic use their creative skills to capture the peace and prosperity coming to their home countries, or are these skills better used to remember the lessons of history?