His works Kameni spavač (Stone Sleeper) and Modra rijeka (Blue River) are probably the most important Bosnian poetic achievements of the 20th century.

He started working for the magazine Gajret, which his brother Hamid regulated and which was founded by Safvet beg Bašagić.

After the war, Dizdar was a prominent figure in the cultural life of Bosnia and Herzegovina, working as the editor-in-chief of the daily Oslobođenje (Liberation).

[7] Dizdar's two poetry collections and series of longer poems, Kameni spavač (Stone Sleeper) (1966–71)[8] and Modra rijeka (Blue River, 1971), fused seemingly disparate elements.

His poetry referenced medieval Bosnian tombstones ("stećci" or "mramorovi" - marbles) and their gnomic inscriptions on the ephemerality of life.

Through the stećci, he discussed themes of "the intimate life journey of origin, of homeland or landscapes, of sources of knowledge, of experiences of the world, of a new and coordinated deciphering of signs, which reach pass their singularity.

It is stone, but also a word, it is earth, but also heaven, it is matter, but also a spirit, it is a cry, but also a song, it is death, but also life, it is the past, but also the future.”[19] Mak Dizdar also fought against the forced influence of Serbicisms on the Bosnian colloquial vernacular, in his 1970 article "Marginalije o jeziku i oko njega".