Mirror Made of Words by Dario Cvencek

Mirror Made of Words weaves sound, form, and emotion into a lyrical exploration of love, loss, and self-discovery. Dario reimagines familiar wisdom through fresh experience, blending innovative form with intimate reflection.   

— Sarah Rooney, author of Mother Media

Dario Cvencek’s second, full-length poetry collection Mirror Made of Words is reflective and observational—a book of mirrors and scars eruditely explored in a world of light and love, beyond the haunted chaos of his breakout collection PTSD Martini. Cvencek’s work—in its simplicity and its decadence—reminds us that our scars are what holds the fabric of our lives together, not the individual threads, because in them, our scars, true strength resides—the beauty beneath the ugliness. His use of rhyme is brave and refreshing. Each poem, a bloom in life’s battlefield.

— David Estringel, editor-in-chief of Blood+Honey and The Argyle Literary Magazine

I can hear the song that plays in Dario’s heart now. The words in these poems are cosmic and uncontrollable, and if you take off the headphones and look out the window, you’ll hear it too. The roar is holy and prophetically terrifying.

— Scott Laudati, author of Play the Devil

Mirror Made of Words is a conscious unraveling, making sense of a world “not polished…(but) confused and unsettled.” Dario Cvencek unmasks suffering, loss, joy, identity, and acceptance to then parse them down to their most digestible bits, asking his readers to find simplicity in a world that prefers complication. Mirror Made of Words invites us to float to the bottom of the murky waters we so desperately try to see though. In Cvencek’s embrace of the paradoxical delight and catastrophe that is life, he is no longer at odds with the world or with himself. As he seeks meaningfulness in a world chronically inflicted by pain, he has embraced, and in turn, has been embraced by the sheer chaos and glory of it all, making space for love, all while grappling with fate and impermanence. Cvencek promotes a simplicity that is a far cry from the overwhelming nature of our current world. He reminds us to go gently through life, with gratitude and with the understanding that that which we have, we have earned. In his precise and straightforward syntax, Cvencek makes light of our self-induced heaviness, describing our most complex emotions arriving as simply and as gently as the wind through an unlatched window.

— Ciara Totton, author of Bodies in Reduction

It’s funny how blurbs work, so bear with me: I have all but given up on writing although, that feeling (giving up) is being kicked around more than I’d care to admit, when I received an email from Dario Cvencek asking if I remembered agreeing to write a blurb for his new collection of poetry Mirror Made of Words, which I didn’t, and truth be told I hadn’t read it either (I’m going through stuff like I said). I could have just bailed out. But, I’m not built that way, so—I ate every word like Swedish chocolate.  Mirror Made of Words melts on the tongue and heartstrings. Dario Cvencek takes you from the perils and trauma of war as in his first collection PTSD Martini, and lands in a realm of perseverance, hope, understanding, butterfly wings, and yes—love.  All in your hand—verses, rhyme, odes, and epics such as: Walls and Magic, Go With The Flow and The Ugly Duckling, Loves Me Loves Me Not and He Who Waits, poems in the palm that remind you that: “In operas they have acts and in life we have birthdays.” Mirror Made of Words invites you to come celebrate the victories that make life’s treasures worth striving for as you make your way through the human condition. Thank you, Dario Cvencek, for another fine collection and the kick in the ass I needed. It’s funny how blurbs work.

— G. Macias Gusman, poet and author of Neversent

Mirror Made of Words is a collection of poetry that explores the overarching themes of self-reflection and self-discovery. These are poems about the search for meaning, love, pain, healing, self-acceptance, nature, and growth. They seek to question, challenge, deconstruct, illuminate, and uplift. The verses are the authors’ enclave through the identity storms needed for the process of integration to take its course. Laid out bare are the emotional and philosophical struggles of the narrator, whose voice is at times curiously tender, and at times prophetically harsh. The emotions are often expressed meta-physically, with vivid comparisons. An emphasis is placed on the rhythm and the sound patterns to accentuate moods; sublime and spiritual, the words in and of themselves strive to make music.

Dario Cvencek is an immigrant poet from the Balkans. He started writing poetry in high school, inspired by his growing up during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, and his subsequent experiences as a refugee of war and an immigrant in Germany and the United States. His poems explore themes of healing, spirituality, the search for meaning, nature, food, and love. His work has appeared in independent literary magazines and presses, such as Rising Phoenix Review, Gnashing Teeth Publishing, Alien Buddha Press, Beyond Words Magazine, Literary Heist, ANARKISS, Blood+Honey, Literary Underground, Elizabeth Ellen’s Hobart, The Hemlock Journal, and others. He was recently featured in an anthology of political poetry Silence is Consent: American Poets Speaking to the American Conscience (Casablanca Press, 2025), as well as in an anthology of love poetry The Alien Buddha Loves You Too (Alien Buddha Press, 2025). His first full-length collection of poetry PTSD Martini was released by Carbonation Press in May 2025. He lives and works in Seattle, WA, where he also hosts a curated open mic series Speak Out Seattle (IG: speakoutseattle). This is his second full-length collection of poetry.

Paperback: $25. ISBN: 978-1-105-78894-9

Forthcoming in February 2026.