After two notable collections of short stories “Mandarin ducks” and “Nervus vagus and other stories”, writer Milanka Blagojević published a new book – a collection of poems “My father dies in poetry”.
The book was published in February this year by the Banja Luka publishing house Imprimatur.
The poems in the book “My father dies in poetry” are divided into three cycles and offer readers a sincere and touching portrait of loss, but at the same time a portrait of everything that stands against that loss, that precedes it and that has the strength to survive it, whether in memory, whether in the small joys of everyday life.
“Throughout the book, the author describes the stages of the process of accepting the death of a close person, but as the talk about the death of the father continues through the songs, the child’s tone becomes more and more dominant over the adult. There is, of course, a reason for this inflation of infantility in the verses. How to talk about the death of the father than as his child? Adulthood creates a lump in the throat, which the author often mentions in the lyrics, and this lump cancels the ability to speak. The book “My father dies in poetry” it contains a lot of songs that are easy to get along with. The tone is immediate, close, and the author has found a way to skilfully and gently guide the reader through painful and difficult topics. This is a book about dying and growing up through the arrival of awareness of death, but to the same extent this is also a book about childhood that continues to live with us throughout our entire lives”, she stated ineditor of the book Tanja Stupar Trifunović.
Milanka Blagojević she was born in Banja Luka in 1982. She graduated from the Department of Serbian Language and Literature at the Faculty of Philology in Banja Luka. She writes poems and short stories, which she published in joint collections of young authors, literary magazines and on internet portals.
She is the mother of Andrije, Arsen and Alyosha. In 2018, Imprimatur published the story collection “Mandarin ducks”, for which it won the “Čučkova knjiga” award for the best first book, and in 2020, the story collection “Nervus vagus and other stories”. This is her third book and first collection of poetry.
A SELECTION FROM THE COLLECTION
MY FATHER DIES IN POETRY
Yesterday I found out my father died
that news has been traveling to me for four years
My father dies in poetry
there was no time
to bend down
I wash my face
I comb my hair
I look in the mirror
to tell myself
your father died
Be strong
they talked and shoved the dumpling down their throats
I was crying in the corridor from the neck veins
and collected tears
of so much salt
my collarbone was eroded
Time is short
the dead do not speak
they drink mint tea and are silent
they listen to us carefully
Never cleanly with the living
they speak
they are leaving
and they forget the words
nothing remains in them
My father died four years ago
I received the news yesterday
she crouched inside me and waited
to wash myself
I comb my hair
I caress my face
I announce
your father died
I think he’s standing at that gate
and he is waiting for me
so many unspoken words
I spill them on the street
like ashes
just sit
hear
he drinks mint tea
The dead do not speak
they listen to us carefully
never cleanly with the living
they speak
they are leaving
nothing remains in them
Neither you nor your long fingers
CIRCUS DANCER
I was once a circus dancer
walked on a wire
from one side to the other
shipment
got up
stood against the wall
was waiting for the knives
They used to pierce my stomach
I was bleeding a lot
shipment
got up
Then I was the star of the evening
rode an elephant
shipment
got up
The audience applauded
it’s all a show
the show
those falls
bleeding
Why does it even count?
if the man finally gets up
continue
That which sometimes in itself
on
it’s falling apart
the audience doesn’t see that
and no one applauds
That doesn’t count
DREAM IS A COWARD
You should not sleep often during the day
sleep is a coward
sleep is death
only at night
if you really have to be short and firm
During the day, if you fall asleep around six or seven
in winter even around four
and that darkness catches you
know that you died
That darkness is another world
you hear someone breathing next to you
that someone is from the other world
it can happen that you don’t manage and you die
on that eve when you wonder
are betrayals forgivable?
Do you still have the strength to start?
All this happens at that evil hour when sleep deceives you
and you die
the awakenings after that death are not the same
and now you don’t know what to do with the rest of your life
gifted
(WORLD)