On purpose or by accident, the writer from Nikšić, Miloš Kecojević, received a special gift for his 42nd birthday - an author's evening, a full hall, thunderous applause and a night to remember.
"This is an extraordinary evening and this is one of my most beautiful birthdays. I often hear the phrase, are people who write happy, especially poets. They say they are unhappy. And I'm happy. I am happy that I have such collaborators, a wonderful audience, friends, a happy family, and I am also happy because I am a poet, because a poet must be sad in his poems, "consume" a part of his soul, "crush" an emotion, because without that, quality cannot be created song. "It's better that he conveys that sadness in a song, and that he spreads love and warmth to everyone around him," said Kecojević.
He published the book of epic-lyrical poetry and prose "Patriotski poimenik Piva" in 2016, and two years later the book of prose "Pricaj jede", for which he received the prestigious award "Zaloga", for an artistic vision of the homeland. He published lyrical poetry in magazines and anthologies of poetry.
The poet Spasoje Bajović spoke about the book "Grandfather's Tale", he said that Kecojević is an interpreter of temporal events who scans the social moment of his time with an illustrative example.
"The vividness and concreteness of the original language represent the most important structural elements in Kecojević's prose. "Thanks to his creative gift and eloquence, through the association of elementary images, Kecojević realizes a picturesque suggestive whole surrounded by space and objectivity," said Bajović.
As he pointed out, the richness of the poetic language in Kecojević's prose is also reflected in the use of lesser-known words, phrases and constructions.
"The book 'Grandfather's Tale' is written in an unforced, simple style based on the persuasiveness of the story and its message. "Kecojević wrote an interesting book of stories about human destinies, revived many forgotten truths from the world of his homeland," said Bajović.
Poet Sofija Simović spoke about Kecojević's lyrical poetry, who emphasized that while reading the poetry of Miloš Kecojević, the reader's "eyes grow and a different experience of the world arises, completely free, without being enslaved by rules, complex verse in its simplicity, in form and expression sometimes close to folk poetry ".
"Turned to his world, with the desire to capture the reader's attention, the poet rejoices and suffers, sings about love, death, transience, homeland, so you have to read his poems carefully and patiently search for the secret in each verse. Perhaps due to excess emotions, our poet has not yet written a sunny poem. His songs strongly search for melody, expecting in time the combination of rhythm of sound and dance, which will surely happen. One thing is certain, each song has its own story, strong emotion and sensitivity, which is an essential feature of lyrics," Simović pointed out.
As the poet Dušan Govedarica said, real poets, say critics and interpreters, are known for their patriotic and children's verses.
"That it is a difficult job is shown by the fact that there are four and a half times more 'serious' poets. Miloš Kecojević, an agile creator of both poetry and prose, was raised on the clearest sources of our language. Until 1967/68, until Dragan Radulović, Nikšić was without a single poet for children. Now the people of Nikšić can boast - there are Veselin Gezović, Milica and Goran Radojičić, Milenko Pejović and a few other young talents from the Poenta Poetika Literary Club. Miloš Kecojević is an entrepreneur - he knows how to write and work," said Govedarica, who published his first children's poems in 1982.
Kecojević writes poetry and prose, and some of his epic songs have been recorded and performed at ethno festivals. Slavko Milić, M.Sc., spoke about his epic poetics, who said that in his verses, Kecojević "lucidly faces the eternal question of all poets about the transitoriness of their works, but he does not know that he has already joined the ranks of ephemeral transients".
"The subject of his characters is outside himself, that's why Kecojević observes, documents, selects details, connects and creates an epic work. He is always at a certain distance from the event that he 'paints', conditionally speaking, even though he is so close, because he is the painter of an epic poem. His description of the hero is stronger than the picture we are looking at, and the rule that one picture is stronger than a hundred words does not apply to him," Milić pointed out.
According to him, Kecojević is a wonderful chronicler of a bygone era and few people, like him, so carefully and "so epically poetically recorded everything he got hold of from historical facts and it grew as an epic chronicle of our country".
"With his epic heroes and events, Kecojević breathes life with his whole being, he strives for objectivity through his subjectivity. Kecojević's poetic genesis is very interesting, his epic is a picture of life and progress. He is one of the poets who managed to protect himself from political and current social situations in the vault of his poetry, creating a purely poetic work, autonomous and devoid of ideological balance. By his temperament, he is a quiet melancholic, an epic open to reality, always ready to react to the slightest blink of time, but in his own special way, without slogans and variety in a mood scale that goes to poetic infinity. Miloš Kecojvić's song is created so spontaneously, as a response to past events, in his sensitive poetic soul, which, when needed, is a harsh beer rock that does not hurt," said Milić.
Dr. Marijana Terić said that "the specificity of Kecojević's poems or poetic stories can be found in the lexically and phraseologically rich folk speech with many archaisms and deviations from the standard literary language."
"Miloš Kecojević, the custodian of our linguistic and cultural heritage, that is, the custodian of the past and visionary of the future, creates a poetic world, an image of national identity based on the values of the patriarchal environment in which he grew up. Lyrical expressions imbued with strong sensitivity, true knowledge and struggle for the preservation of traditional customs and everything that makes up our existence are contained in almost all of Miloš Kecojević's poetic stories. For this reason, his literary opus rests on a developed epic tradition, knowledge of national heritage, but also growing up in a patriarchal environment that shaped him as an artist of unique poetic-linguistic integrity, a poet-singer of epic literary production," Terić said, adding that Kecojević was ahead of the curve. of his time, a traditional and modern literary creator at the same time.
The evening was opened by the President of the Municipal Assembly, Nemanja Vuković, who said that he was glad that culture had returned to the big stage of the city under Trebjes and promised that the local administration would be with the creators and provide them with help. He wished Kecojević to continue to be a successful and fruitful writer.
Kecojević is a regular member of the "Vladimir Mijušković" Literary Community (KZ) from Nikšić, and his poetry has been translated into English, French, Arabic and Romani. He is a participant in many manifestations and literary meetings at the local, national and international level, and in the organization of the Belgrade Center for Culture and Literature, in 2019, in competition with 40 European poets, his lyrical poem "The Horseman" won the first prize.
The author's evening was organized by KZ "Vladimir Mijušković" and JU "Zahumlje", under the auspices of the Municipality of Nikšić, and as part of the October repertoire of Nikšić's cultural scene. read excerpts from Kecojević's prose and poetry.
Bonus video:
