JACQUARD - A COLLECTION OF POETRY

Someone wisely said long ago that good books do not need promotions, and this is proof, but here we go. This is a compass rose. Namely, I will recite one of my poems, which is outside this cycle but is supercognizant, and because of it, I paradoxically started writing comments on this collection instead of the other way around. I dedicated it to my daughter Euphrosyne, and it bears the same title... The great Arsen Dedić was the child of the president of the church board of the Orthodox Church in Šibenik, a Serb from Šibenik, but that aside, we know his wonderful melodies and sung verses that live on. We also know the verses of Bora Đorđević, such as the song "Anđele," officially the most beautiful Serbian song of the 20th century. That too aside, but it does matter, nothing is by chance. What my collection Jacquard (or as I fondly call it: a rug) synthesizes with its diversity and refinement, style, and language, are two levels and milieus of creation. One is theosophical (we are in the gallery of Ž. Vidović, who was precisely that – a liturgical philosopher and creator of Creative, Christian, and Orthodox theosophy and philosophy of existence, which made him an elusive thorn for many – Dragoljub Mićunović said when ŽV returned to Yugoslavia from the camp: "Why didn't you kill him immediately at the border," a great human rights activist and democrat), thus, biblical, Jacobite, defiant, crying out, ascetic in the true sense of the word, and the other level is philosophical, emotional, tender, erotic (in the true sense of the word), not pornographic. This manuscript has been waiting for over a year to be printed and published, while some poems originated in early youth. It is usually said that a poet, singer-songwriter, or chansonnier achieves and creates best, like a painter, somewhere around the age of 25 and 26, when what is educated and learned is realized. With me, it's somehow different, but not by my fault or backwardness, on the contrary. We had books, and I had "smarter things to do." I was educated, but I also received two pearls, one of which I spoke here at the beginning in the poem, and the other I will not because you never know when some pig is lurking, and God's commandments should be kept. The book "The Spirit Breathes Where It Wills" was forbidden and hindered from all sides; for publication and printing, it did not receive the official blessing, but it did as a "private," i.e., my book and work. Also, as I said, I saved the truth and soul about grandfather Žarko; likewise, it should be said that the book "The Spirit Breathes Where It Wills" justified its title and meaning by its publication and appearance, down to the last line and letter. How wonderful it is! It does not contain only 10 years (2014-2024) of my incidental correspondence for the Info Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, church periodicals, bulletins, and magazines in which candles are wrapped today, but all my educational and scientific endeavor, creative engagement, as Professor Goran likes to say beautifully, was focused on theology, philosophy, biblical studies. That is why I am grateful to my professor and former mentor in doctoral studies of biblical studies, His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia, Mr. Porfirije, as well as to all my fellow professors, for knowing how to develop and encourage in me and my fellow students of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Belgrade, a correct patristic, Orthodox, biblical, and ethical church consciousness and ecclesiological conscience anchored in Holy Scripture, in the Holy Spirit above all, and in the Holy Tradition of the Church. This was achieved and brought about by the work "The Spirit Breathes Where It Wills." Therefore, I first thank God for the talents He generously poured out, and then I must emphasize who is responsible for the book "The Spirit Breathes Where It Wills" being printed and presented here alongside the collection, and that is the poet Ratko Popović from Banja Luka and the Skandi printing house. So, besides the Jacquard collection, published by Čigoja, being available in Belgrade in their and all major bookstores, the poet Popović, in his kindness, friendly gave all his efforts to ensure that the books would see the light of day here as well. So now they have their separate life, registered in Matica Srpska and all libraries of the Republic of Srpska, in two copies each. Thanks to the poet Ratko Popović. Thus, a good Samaritan is found who surpasses priests, writers, and Pharisees, as the Gospel pericope says. After all, I come to one conclusion at this promotion, without comparative pretensions, that just as all greater minds of theology, philosophy, literature, and especially poetry, were solitary (let us remember Crnjanski, Ujević, Selimović, Andrić) in their genius and production of words, I have taken on and am engaged in the most unpopular profession from the most unpopular positions and in the most unpopular way. Dressed in black, almost entirely in darker colors, not only because of the weight and appearance, but also because of the self-effacement in which something is always created, formed, and reaches the most hidden "kinships of faces in the universe," all my words and creativity actually loudly screamed and cried out for public attention, simultaneously demanding due respect for my self-effacement. Patriarch Alexy of Moscow, also described in the book, says that a priest is the loneliest, even if surrounded by hundreds of believers or friends, and that if he is a true priest, he must bear that Cross of solitude and ascetic struggle alone, like Christ Himself. Being such, then a man who is in a sacred dream, act, or character, and is also a poet, philosopher, ultimately a consistent theologian, is certainly an oddball squared. However, just as unfinished business remained here on earth for the Messiah, I also seemed to have unfinished business which, like the Father who brings forth the Son to the public (as the song "Sombor Roses" says: now I am alone in my garden), I now bring to the public all my subtlety of being, the solitude of creation, lines and words, not wishing to shame you but intending to secretly leave you, yet it was not given to me. While speaking about the collection in the cabinet of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, I said that at the Saint Sava Poetic Evening in SKZ, there was everything but Saint Sava. The only poem recited about him was by the former Minister of Religions in the federal government, Dragan Dragojlović, who was an ambassador to Australia and who knows what else, but the most significant thing was that he was a member of the Committee for the Construction of the Church of Saint Sava, and he recited a poem in that name, as a remembrance of the time when Patriarch German fought to have such a magnificent Cathedral, an all-Serbian votive Church. Sava is everywhere, despite all of that, even when sparrows, birds, and other things are sung about instead of Him. Do not let that deceive you in my collection because even if you think there is no Sava or Christ in the collection, although there is certainly Saint Nikolaj of Žiča, They are everywhere. Beside the secret inhabitant of the collection, who is also not in it – my Euphrosyne, so too does He hover above it and emerge from it, unavoidable, and those for whom it was created, such as it is and such as they are, the books of my smallness, before you, the Great Ones, according to Paul, whose is also the title of the book (The Spirit Breathes Where It Wills): "In humility value others above yourselves." Thank you all! Deacon Božidar Vasiljević