This book also has a welcome word from the publisher. Some people have something to say though. "Sumatra" publishes good, beautifully packaged and designed books. They do an anthology business and they are right when they claim that smaller publishing houses resemble antique shops. That topic is well described in the documentary The Booksellers, what is the importance of recording, buying and keeping. Small publishers can do what the big ones can't, to dedicate themselves and be guided by concrete ideas, that's why it's no wonder that the publishing house "Sumatra" has its own manifesto. Not all publishers have become mere intermediaries between the writer and the outlet, therefore it is important that there are ideas and meaning behind the "Sumatra" publishing house.
That is why it seems that they found each other, in this case "Sumatra" as a publisher and Mato Uljarević as a poet. They found each other, because they are not driven only by interest. They are drawn by some greater force and meaning, whether it is creativity, literature, poetry or something that has yet to be defined. There's something there.
The book "Fingers" by Mat Uljarević is important. First of all, because there is no one standing behind it to push it with all its might, neither the state, ministry, association, club, group, NGO, lobby, nobody at all. This is extraordinary poetry, absolutely authentic in structure and an unpretentious book in a time of pretentiousness.
These songs don't want to be part of some old or new false revolution, they don't beat their chests, they don't correct the wrongs of the Drina, but there is an organic defiance in each of the songs. It is no wonder that Mato Uljarević is a painter and sculptor, because his poems are skillfully shaped. From the first to the last song, the corridor dominates as a symbol. As a space through which the reader moves, as if reading these poems from the walls of a corridor, in which people are trapped between two (non)times. They are waiting for something. If they wait, they wait, for some people, life is spent waiting.
Hallway. There is no harder or better word to describe the condition. We started, and we are stuck there, neither there nor here. A corridor as destiny, a space between two worlds. While we are waiting for something to happen to us, here comes a voice like Mato Uljarević, to leave a mark, to state, and leave proof that they did not really convince everyone that the truth is a lie and vice versa.
But without bile and without misery. Without resentment and anger. With measure, with poetry. Because everything is possible, including "the police station is nicer than the hospital". A lot fits in these two verses. It is a difficult doorknob (22), and such corridors are also a question. That a man does not know what is better or worse for him, the police or the hospital. In Mat's poems florists protest, and the algorithm combines angels, antichrist and artificial intelligence.
No exaggeration at any cost, no slapping tradition to make it sound more modern, no! But still, there are songs about the grandfather's grave that (unfortunately) remains at the bottom of an artificial lake, while on the surface the great-grandson rents scooters. Scooter, that's the name of the song. Accurate even though (maybe) fictional. It doesn't even matter, we trust her easily. Today, everything is rented, even bravery and heroism. In the age of post-truth, it is safest to believe in poetry.
"In the battle for the Cosmos, whoever/has a better Designer will win". It is no accident that the letters K and D are written in capital letters. The Cosmos is everything, and the Designer is God. Why wouldn't God be the Designer if "God is a DJ" is repeated for decades?!
There is something in this book, there is something, because in the poem Gutenberg Wounded angels land on Cetinje, right to Monk Makari's sleep. They are powerful images, letters travel through the ages, intended for books, repurposed as ammunition for rifles. Sometimes shadows say more than the object that creates them.
"All members of his tribe/feet will shrink before they die". This sounds like it's from a pen Fernanda Arabala. Mato Uljarević writes skillfully enough to be both wise and ironic, witty and not banal. Each verse should be turned, to see what is behind. Because, Spit tobacco is a discovery, in that song Cuba and Trebinje come together, their taste comes together. And it works, those songs are effective. A song shines and flies like a star Vucji Do, wolves are heard in the field and the dead can be seen barely counted. A century flies by in an instant and there we are.
The sound can be heard in these songs even 200 years later. Lapis lazuli, it's a 1:1 measure of eternity, Byzantine blue and gold, eye to eye, one on one. Suddenly, there are songs that connect the ages. Songs link.
And it is unapologetically said that civilization made the word freedom replace with another word prostitution. Let's spin around here. At least that's how it is in poetry, as evidenced by the lines that precisely describe the current state:the hermeticity of poetry/is nothing but/a delirious scene of emptiness". Here is the definition! So much poetry was written and printed, reprinted. We have too many poets and not enough poetry and songs. There are so many big publishers behind that poetry, and those verses are just that a scene of emptiness.
This is above average poetry, poetry that touches some higher chords and makes a good sound.
When someone ends up at the angel's place, in that corridor between the worlds, the angel types in the bar code for them, because they have to pay. Such rules are hinted at in this book. That is why this poetry is contemporary, without the desire to be contemporary at any cost. Because today everything has a barcode and everything has to be paid for. This is stated by Mato Uljarević. Hardly anyone can say that he is wrong.
And it is important that this book came out, that it was sown and that it demystifies the accumulated hypocrisy in the most beautiful way, through poetry. Those who shout "make love, not war", know very well with their fingers to hit everyone who doesn't think like them. This book should be a turning point.
fingers, that's a good title for a good book of poetry.
Bonus video:
