By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A retired English-language teacher who fled the Balkan Wars is now penning poems in quiet reflection.
Habib Mandzic, of Noble Park, fills his days fishing for mullet and King George whiting, walking and taking his grand-daughter to play centres.
He also makes time for writing his eighth book – a book of poetry beautifully entitled ‘When I think, the moon listens’.
Growing up in Bosnia-Herzegovina, he became steeped in American literature, sociology and philosophy.
“When I was in high school, I wrote some poems because as a teenager I was in love. Many girls inspired me to write love songs.”
In the past five years, he’s reacquainted himself with poetry.
His texts reflect on lofty topics – war, freedom of will, gender equality, will-power, environment, fear, stress, sleep deprivation, mental balance, suffering, and the good and evil in ourselves.
Life wasn’t always this tranquil for Mr Mandzic.
Teaching English language classes, he was forced to flee from Bosnia “literally a day” before war broke out in the early 1990s.
Via Hungary, he travelled to Germany in frantic search for his wife and son, who had fled three days earlier.
In an era before widespread internet or mobile phones, he searched 10 days “going from police station to police station” while thinking his family may be in a camp.
Miraculously, an acquaintance in Germany told him that a girl had arrived in Dortmund in the country’s north.
“He gave me a telephone number of this house and they were there.
“That was emotional and a big drama.”
He and his family arrived as refugees in Australia in 1995, and he resumed his work as an English-language teacher at Chisholm and Holmesglen Tafes and AMES.
“I helped people out with different languages, cultures and ethnic backgrounds, it gave me that love to write again.
“It doesn’t matter where you come from, the essence of everyone is to be happy.
“My motto in life is the best way to make yourself happy is to make someone else happy.”
Every morning, Mr Mandzic asks himself how he may serve others.
But he says power and fear dominate our world.
“There’s lots of ignorance in the world, lots of discrepancy between rich and poor, lots of misunderstanding, lots of fear.
“We’re not communicating, we need to open up ourselves. We pretend we know other people, ethnicities and cultures on a lot of different levels.
“That’s really it – more communication, more social connection. Not in social media, but in real life seeing our friends, meeting in parks and sports.
“To open our hearts to others is the best way to say ‘Here I am’.”
‘When I think, the moon listens’ is self-published with In-house Publishing. For copies, message Habib Mandzic on Facebook.
