A poet whose strength was given by the Montenegrin hills and his native Ozrinići, and calmness by the plains of Vojvodina

"If one morning I come/ smiling by the flight of birds/ forgive me, I dreamed of spring/ in a room with black walls./ If one day I come silent and sad/ weave in my hair an ordinary flower of waiting/ and sprinkle it with ashes call/ to let it be known it was in vain/ to love everything but a little pain".

This is how Gojko Janjušević "sang" - a poet who had two homelands, Montenegro and Vojvodina, who was educated, created and died in the plains, and who always had the hills in his mind, ready to hide behind them and find himself in them strength. Even those who have never set foot in Nikšić have heard about his native Ozrinići.

JU "Zahumlje" decided to organize a tribute to the poet of the homeland, as he is most often called, the author of the famous poem "Ogradice", as well as the poem "Celo", which he wrote for 40 years, to remind of Janjušević's creativity, but also to tell that poets like they must not forget him.

"I saw Gojko Janjušević's poetic world as a universal representation of the relationship between his old and new homeland, his search for that distant land that he found in Vojvodina. This relationship between two homelands that always remained a secret, a universal philosophical mystery, and were always together, and he strove for one and the other, never wanting to give up one of them," said Milena Kulić, professional associate. Department of Literature and Language of Matica Srpska, chief and responsible editor of the magazine "Kult", member of the editorial staff of the Bulletin of Sterija Theater.

She reminded that Janjušević made a great contribution to the study of dramatic literature, translating contemporary works by Slovenian and Macedonian authors, as well as that he was the editor of the publishing house "Progres", the literary magazine for culture and art, "Polja" and the editor-in-chief of the Cultural Center in Novi Sad.

"Gojko's poetry is a philosophical, artistic mystical world that should be eternally searched for. He never forgot his homeland, although he experienced the Vojvodina plain as an important segment of his poetry. His poetic paintings, although they strive for simplicity, are full of symbols, and full of love for Montenegro and Vojvodina," said Kulić, winner of this year's "Timočka lira" award and whose book "Pavle Popović/Gojko Janjušević" is about to be published.

Sofija Simović from the "Vladimir Mijušković" Literary Association (KZ), from Nikšić, reminded that Janjušević is one of the founders of the said Association, but also the winner of the "Pledge" award, which is awarded by that KZ.

"Gojko's poetry is also recognizable by the perfect combination of the impossible, the combination of hills and plains, the Montenegrin karst and the plain of Vojvodina, the combination of two different coasts, two rivers, small Gračanica and the great Danube. It is interesting that Gračanica, always close to the sky, never drowned in the big and wide Danube, but in childhood it peeked and emerged from each of its mystical states. "Our poet is different, philosophically refined, inscrutable, without silk and gold, deeply thoughtful, deeply native", said Simović.

As she pointed out, the creativity of Gojko Janjušević makes it special because it is different, more mysterious and magical, "philosophically refined verse, carved metaphor and inspiring emotions".

"Gojko's poetry is both beginningless and indestructible, philosophical and metaphorical, an alchemy of light and nothingness. It sets the boundaries between life and death and when you least expect it enters the space of the sun. She is all-powerful," Simović pointed out.

The moderator of the evening, which she prepared together with Goran Radojičić, was the editor of the cultural program in "Zahumlje", Anđela Peković, who pointed out that in 2000, Janjušević stopped, not of his own volition, to search for that stopping point in himself, leaving us several precious books of poetry. She read Alaksandr Badnjar's article about Janjušević, which was published in the magazine "Polja" in 1976, but also recalled that Janjušević, in memory of his uncle Đuza Bulatović, initiated the formation of a school library in the Elementary School "Dušan Bojović" in Nikšić County, brought a large number titles, brought writers and organized literary classes for the students of the mentioned school.

"Undoubtedly, Gojko Janjušević was a poet of a distant land, different from the banal world of everyday life, that he sought the answer to basic existential questions and conditions in the literature about insomnia, that he probably found the answer to those same questions, but he skilfully encoded them, hid them in metaphors , into syntagms, into the space between, somewhere between Ozrinić and the plains of Vojvodina. And while Gračanica and the Danube were struggling for existence, he turned the answer to all the questions that someone asks to this day into a star and left it to us to admire from afar," said Peković.

The dinner was attended by Janjušević's children, son Srđan and daughter Rima Grujić, as well as brother Rajo.

"Since I am a professor, I see all of this as an ideal lesson in which Gojko's poetry was reincarnated in the minds of these young people who clearly understand and love it. Srđan and I, who obviously picked up from him some kind of duality in emotions, questioning, in the sense of responsibility, some kind of sin that we constantly try to suppress and purify in ourselves, decided to come as a celebration, however, this suddenly became for me a kind of pilgrimage for which I am endlessly grateful", said Rima Grujić.

Spasoje Bajović, president of the KZ "Vladimir Mijušković" recalled that Janjušević's poems were also included in the anthologies published by the community "Album of Nikšić's Literary Memories" and "Stormy Fields of Poetry", which he presented to his family and to Milena Kulić.

Members of the "Poenta Poetika" Literary Club, Miloš Jocović and Tijana Vujović, spoke selected verses, while a student of the "Dara Čokorilo" Music School, young guitarist Jovan Radulović, colored the evening with music.

"If one evening I come defiant/ prepare a bed of comfort for me/ I buried her three cubits into my emptiness./ If one midnight I don't come/ find a grave for me in your fingers/ to caress the love of your laughter", are the lyrics of the poet who is so warm , sang strongly and enigmatically about Nikšić and Ozrinići.