Erudite, writer, art historian, essayist, translator and poet dr. In the poetry collection Med, Miklavž Komelj created an interesting picture of the area of in-betweenness, in which society is divided even more.
These interludes are meant as reflections, even the reflections expressed in the fourteen poems. The titular preposition between therefore creates an arc with which the poet creates a dialogue between the two extremes. At the same time, this honey can also be honey – food, drive – and it is mostly condensed or thick. Here, we also take into account the design side of the book, which also includes the author’s artwork.
The play on words is clear and convincing. Parables also show what one may not want to see or does not see at all. But – it has to. In this way, the most important, weighty and crucial thing in the entire collection is the constant questioning, which constantly excites and leaves many places empty at one time, and at other times newly occupied. Although the book’s flap says that it is poetry that came from a very tense historical period, it rises above that time and can be read from different perspectives. I think that the poet is not only problematizing a specific period, but the pandemic period was just the trigger of a whole, extremely reflective cycle. This one is now timeless.
If I compare the Med collection with Komel’s Goreča knjiga published the year before, I can calmly say that it again does not lack intensity, nor does it lack immediacy and sophisticated dialogue with the readership. Dealing with the real world and the circumstances of the song’s creation is much more daring in this collection, even somewhat challenging and exciting. Although the collection also talks about the covid-19 pandemic, Komelj points out that such an apocalypse happens all the time. The collection of poems boldly opposes media reporting, planned panic and all those who like to scare and create confusion. And yet it’s not about engagement. The elaboration of the expression, the precision in the doses of words and the selected quotes and their creators soften the criticism.
So Zbirka Med dares to speak; the often missing sincerity and unpredictability are still missing in today’s art. Sometimes a razor that cuts with words and therefore shocks – to paraphrase the artist – is necessary and less harmful than anything else. Doubt remains in the mirror: “And what if freedom is / in what is not considered / freedom?“
Shaking up definitions and believing in loyalty to oneself raises an important question about generalization and too quick satisfaction with the majority opinion: “Your thought is pure, / if your spirit is truly yours.” The commitment to loyalty is like a common thread, which reaches its point in Meja’s last poem:
“A true rumoris the one that enduresthat her truth iswhere there is no rumor.Without untying the knots,without finding a way home.Tragedy is the song of goats,not the song of the gods.“
The poems in the Med collection convey many reflections on decisions and directions, which are never simple. With thoughtful language and the derivation of poetic devices, Miklavž Komelj creates streams of thought and offers us views that we must find as critical observers. Offering different literary worlds shows us works and names that we probably don’t shed enough light on and delve into. But the in-betweenness, a kind of freezing, is also important: “The path is stationary. / Complete static.This is precisely the key to being able to see something else in the special honeyedness of feelings.
From the show From the book market.
Source: Rtvslo
