POETRY WITH HEIGHTEND VOICE
Honjo is a poet on the path of poetry with a heightened voice; he is rebellious and completely turned towards the world and its aspects of manifestation. He did nothing to calm that voice in the earlier collection of poems, but on the contrary, his poems are completely open. A major part of poetry in Bosnia and Herzegovina is within these coordinates, which makes his poetry recognizable. Second, his world of motifs has sufficient variety, it is abundant and rich, directed at daily phenomena, which is unavoidable if you have in mind Honjo's poetic determination.
Honjo has never repeated himself and never writes in a banal way. Namely, a clear step forward into new motivational entities can be observed: homeland, and new quality regarding poetical expression: his verses are calming and reflexive.
Stone among poets who come from Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost a compulsory topic. Honjo is same. However, his stone is anthropomorphist, it has human qualities, like in the title of the collection and in the poem "The Stone": "They never asked me/ for my name/they wanted my identity card or its number/I did not have one/I said Stone/They laughed"…etc.
Honjo made a complete manuscript, purified from everything that burdens poetic language, silenced and somehow turned towards himself. That is the symbol of his maturity as an author, and critical connection with his own words. (Kresimir Sego, Bosnia and Heryegovina ) .
A CANVAS FULL OF EXQUISITE IMAGES
AND EMOTIONS
Ibrahim Honjo is a well-renowned poet on Vancouver's literary scene, whose artistic proficiency and exceptionally astute voice come alive through his refined verses that enchant, inspire and invite to meditation, leaving an indubitable mark in the mind of the readers.
His Yugoslavian cultural heritage transpires vividly in his poetic statements that brings music to our ears and a rhythm full of imagery abundant with poetic devices, ranging from metaphors to superb comparisons, from personification to smile and allusion, conveying the tone and mood of his feelings so effortlessly.
The plethora of contradictory emotions exhibited in his writing, enriches the already diverse canvas of pictorial images, all of these displayed in a very unique and skillful way that belongs only to Honjo.
Ibrahim Honjo's poems are poignant and profound. They produce mental descriptions making use of figurative language to represent objects, ideas or actions, with a keen philosophical approach to ephemeral and eternal life. He explores a territory where poetry merges with dreams and visions, creating a solid path from real to surreal. He allows the words to flow magically onto the blank paper invi- The intrinsic value of the ideas potrayed in this book lies in the powerful connection of nature’s elements with the sentiments of the human being, a satiated liaison where soul thrives for Creation. The repetitiveness of nature’s elements, with predominance and 'Stone' is the leitmotif, the core or the centre around which the other pendulant elements orbit, to enhance even more the symbol of strength and fixity, audacity, and a sense of belonging to the cultural roots that Honjo has never denied. The snake, the element of evil, of restrain and sufferings is present in his poems just to reassure himself and us, the readers, that good and evil cannot exist one without the other: "A snake on the left/ a stone on the right," "snakelike childhood," or "my sisters serpents." Honjo beautifully intertwines elements of existentialism in a simple way, safely asserting that, " I from the past / I from the present / I from the future / And nothing else." Honjo is a talented bilingual poet who leaves fine traces in the multicultural contemporary literature, making a lasting difference in the intangible arena of universal ideas, with a palette of impressive shapes and colours. (Dr. Lucia Gorea, Poet / Writer Canada)
ting the reader to penetrate his world and share the depths of his soul.
almost obsessively the use of the word “stone,” gives poems an aura of strenght-force, as a link between elements that are opposite and symbolic, such as life and death, light and darkeness, inert and movable.
PRODUCTIVE STONES
In the book of poetry "Roots in the Stone" Ibrahim Honjo developed a suggestive thematic universe dominated by the Sun, rain, waters and stones as symbols of contradictory forces of creation and infinite time.
The obsession with motifs of nature and elementary forces; obsession with elements of nature and nature of elements - he tells us about the poet's strong identity from the very foundations from time immemorial, of eternity of which it is a part.
Diving into homeland nature, the influence of crystal reality of matter and wild power discharge - in the poet's warm conscience, inspiring restless pulsations, the dense game with undefined rules - the play of a quest for finding a meaning of his own existence.
Honjo’s poetic attention and emotiveness are mostly engaged
by natural phenomena which are conected and opposed, and their presence and determined cycles initiate this never completed soul searching, self definition, and design a parallel, intimate world of rapid movement and helplessness.
In that world of disquietude, concealed fussiness, melancholy, state between spasm and relaxation, restraint, suspicions, the world's disposition between slow surrender an insufficient resistance, settling accounts with himself - stones and rocks have the meaning of stability, freedom, "static life" and clear green waters which symbolize the source of life, "germ of germs", centre of renewal, medium of purification, and also proof about the temporariness of life. A new power is drawn from water, and density and compactness from stone.
Poems are very often made from seemingly easily collapsible metaphorical dominoes of sense and meaning, but the poet greatly manages to establish optimum relations and the distance between the totality of description of close reality and its reflection on his senses and personality, so that the reader still has the intact impression of pure lyricism and fundamental imagination.
Poems are made with poetic speech of a high level of expression. The language is figurative, concise, symbolical, and style expressions are completely dedicated to the function of furnishing associate complexity.
Free verse is in correspondence with the poet's intent to point out at the variety of his own soul, perplexed and excited by the perception that the meaning of life is living, and also painfully aware that his assigned structure of "Roots in the Stone" makes such a meaning impossible. (Veljko Lukic, Croatia)
By Bozidar Stanisic
- Excerpt from review -
Irony is, probably, one of the last sanctuaries of an individual in the correlation of being/individual, irony/viewpoint in relation to the world and the collective. Ibrahim Honjo implemented his book of satirical poems from the ironical perspective. “Do not Write this Down”, with a motif inspiration of his own experience of the world – “global village” of the ideology of modern times, “democracy”, daily living which he goes through like a modern Diogenes, who realizes: my barrel is not a military bunker (no protection), my candle – who will see it? But, the world, like Emperor Trojan, still cannot hide its ugly ears. How about mankind? “We choke in ourselves or in each other”. Now, man, inhale deeply! – The poet Ibrahim Honjo seems to tell us – and laugh! At everyone, everything – and at yourself! No taboos!
I recognized in “Do not Write this Down” the contours of the cage into which the daily forces attract the poet. He does not feel like going into the cage, among upstarts, among “righteous” and obedient, among people “as pretense.” Go inside by no means, even if the best cakes and richest foods are there waiting for him! And the poet turns his pen upside down, sets the alarm-clock to go off all the time, and converses with Buddha, his “contemporary”, as “neither God or a fool”, about deities throughout the world, illusions and deceits known to men; to possess, make a fortune, grab, look only forward… Honjo with his satirical verses negates walking down a one-way street, seriousness of existence and relation money - man - money.
Honjo’s book “Do not Write this Down” is a non-conventionally articulated sideways look upon human comedy in which there are not sufficiently many pure harlequins, musicians, and laugh itself.
By Ranko Preradovic
- Excerpt from review -
In his book of poetry “Do not Write this Down”, in both form and matter, Honjo is not only “unique in his own way”, as there is also a noticeable addition to his quest. However, regarding the basis of the contents, “the poetic concept”, he is considerably different in comparison to his previously published books. This is, distinctly, when talking about the first three parts – three unique poems, of the unit “The Last War” with nine poems, “The Centre of the Centre of People is a Man” with five, and “Homo Novus” with six poems; where Honjo, with his wonderful irony regarding “all that exists” in life and around it, achieves, by the simplicity of telling, the distinct artistic creation and scopes that, somehow in a new way, different than the previous ones, affirm him in creative maturity. And as in a way, in these units with poems, everything moves in circles within one statement: “… between pure soul and dirty body I vote for pure soul”…
In the creative quest “to find himself” and from his own experience, from endurance and everyday living which “weighs down like a nightmare”, in other parts of “Do not Write this Down”, Honjo also tests plainness and reaches his known and affirmed creative ranges. He particularly does it with irony, duration, and also our historical “paths and passions” that life has “for elements”. And there, where he addresses a man, life, and history, the poem becomes whole, reaching almost the impossible in conceivable creative affirmation and expression of Ibrahim Honjo.
- Excerpt from review -
Verses in the book of poetry by Ibrahim Honjo “Do not Write this Down” are the greatest “cosmic mathematics” as Vasko Popa would say. Daily living as it is, with all its advantages and disadvantages, is contained within the book. Everyday living is “no way out of a nightmare”, “declaring war”, “self – destruction”, “earth erosion”, “interrupted ecological balance”. Monotony, daily life promising no hope, can be overcome, transformed. How? In what way? When? Who needs to do that? How to make this world more beautiful, more just?
The first impression is that the answers to these questions are simple. However, if we want to be sincere, conscientious, consistent with the principles of mankind, we encounter difficulties with the answers.
Starting from a man as a criterion for all, that very old question which preoccupied poets, artists, and philosophers – the answer is love. Love is perfection. Love dignifies, inspires. Long live love and fresh air - is the response and slogan of this poet.
The poet does not show his thoughts by emphasizing a certain area of the universe; he does it cosmologically, completely. He states sociological – psychological – ecological components surrounding daily living and the present time. The characteristic of his writing is conciseness, combination of verses that makes a poem. There is no punctuation here. Each verse has one’s own weight in the description of thoughts, and aspirations. Words have their own meaning. Words appear like incarnation. Everyone who loves and who is loved understands his words.
The poet expresses freely towards space, time and facts. With this book, he presents himself to the readers with highly artistic, mature creation, inspiration and enthusiasm. It is realistic to expect him to grow into a poet who will create poetry connected with philosophy.
KEEPER OF THE BRIDGE
Literature is the story of the human condition that is being constantly spun and that human beings are never weary of telling to one another. Too often Canadian society sees Art as elitist, and more often as subversive and therefore dangerous by those who resist change, who wish to protect their comfortable status quo.
Butt all true ART must provoke us and challenge us out of our presonal comfort zone, it must shock us out of our complacency. To do this, it must be hard, it must not pull any punches or use pretty images. It must be uncompromising, it must recognize no taboos, nothing and no one must be untouchable, nothing can be sacred. This is the art that forges a new future and a better society, by bringing us face to face with what we are, and showing us what we could be.
This is the poetry of Ibrahim Honjo.
But to understand his poetry, we must understand the man and the land that produced him. Ibrahim Honjo was born in bosnia and Herzegovina, in the city of Mostar, which means "Keeper of the Bridge" in Serbo-Croatian. The bridge in question is a single-span masonry bridge built in 1566. by the Ottoman Empire over the Neretva River to replace the Stari Most (old wooden bridge).
"When you spend a night in Mostar, it is not the sound that wakes you up in the morning,but the light." Ivo Andric, 1961 Nobel Prize Literature
Ibrahim's poetry and skulptures are hard stone flowers nurtured by a hard and challenging life. His life and peregrinations are proof that change is fruitful and that he is truly a "Mostar", a keeper of the bridge between cultures, of a world divided. His poetry is a bridge between what he was, what hi is, and what he can be.
Professor Diego Bastianutti
Branches are so fragile: when burdened they bend and break at delicate segments.
Some of the people in his lifetime tried to do the same to him, but he did not break. On the contrary, he managed to enunciate several books of verses, about 140 plastics and many oil and acrylic paintings. Labour of many years. That was his way to defeat agony and despair to find a safe haven from the invisible forces of evil.
For years he was hidden in poetry, and the result is his seven books. But his spirit wandered throughout other artistic fields. And following it he found joy in casting metals, moulding them into fantastic shapes, combining his alchemy with cold metals and specially prepared colours.
He succeeded. He proclaimed his vision of relations among human beings with all the ingredients of life, from birth to death, marked by the tremendous misfortune of his people.
All his tools are symbols, and if you know how to read them, you will convince yourself that they are so true, so painful, so symptomatic, so…
Artwork is Honjo’s lifetime vocation. The civil war in former Yugoslavia interrupted his activities, but could not break his creative impulse. Heterogeneous perspectives of life in his artistic expressions are amalgamated into a distinctive style. The structure of his works is extracted from his personal interactions with the modern world.
Being transposed into metals, his perceptions, though remodeled, remain competent to inform spectators of the artist’s impressions.
He is always on a quest for new techniques. His sculptures talk picturesquely and symbolically about manifestations of life in given surroundings. The world of his motifs is diverse and extensive, intrigued by the phenomenon of the ordinary, but also by foretelling the future.
Humanized stone from his writings surrenders its place to metals: brass, bronze, copper, iron, aluminum, which, when combined with wood and fabric, offer a unique conceptual adventure.
His art is a protest against war, resistance in the name of life, for those who were slaughtered, exiled, displaced, unborn, all of them against merciless killers.
He is now at the peak of his creativity. His published and unpublished book of poetry and a large number of his exhibitions speak of his fruitfulness. To breathe the gift of life into molten lava is long and dangerous labour that takes skills, knowledge and good organization. His extraordinary way of making dreams come true materialized from the live coals of his craft.
Nijaz Kumbaric
Accustomed to poems with rhyme from which sometimes I repeated some stanzas at appropriate occasions, I did not know until recently, that poems with no rhyme could attract and occupy me.
When I read the new collection of poems of Ibrahim Hondjo I most certainly was convinced of that. I understood that they have their own inner rhyme. Reading Hondjo’s book “Enigma From the Stone” I forgot rhymes, they seemed to have gone with the wind for a moment. However, Hondjo’s poems tied me to them.
Their sounds, echoes, refrains, and messages, remained deep in me. They lead and forced me to think about them while reading and I remember them after that for a long time.
I would say that a poem tells generally about the one who writes it, the poet. Hondjo’s poetry is reflective. It stimulates a deeper understanding of everything around us and within us. It awakens feelings and thoughts about the usefulness and meaning of human existence. It points to life that resembles “a chess game” as he says in the poem with the same name.
In his poems you can recognize a stamp of the climate where he grew up. You can recognize Herzegovina from where he was suddenly parted against his will. However, he carried her in his heart, in his dreams, in his thoughts. For that reason he writes with love about stones, no matter where he lives. He adopted rocky grounds and stone tops of the whole world, even the ones on Mars and the Moon. His homeland is the whole world with the dwelling place in the Universe. He inspires love and soul to stone, the spine of the soil, discovering symbols in them, tracks of life, and a spark. He, the poet, like thunder, inspires the stone with the earthly spark of love and a human way of being. He sculpts human images in them, warriors, muses, sirens, and his loves. When passing an upright tombstone he invokes and revives warriors in them. He speaks with them.
When he passes a solitary upright tombstone, a poem rushes to him, in a moan for his homeland that was snatched away, the warm hearth. The stone is eternal and tells the eternal story about the past times and people. The stone is an enigma that keeps all secrets of the beginning of the world. “Poets write poems about everything”- Honjo says, because, everything is a poem. You only need to show her a hero. He shows by his example that a poet goes from pain to poem, and that it is the borderline of life. “If you succeed in controlling her, you will remain a poet.” He defines the profound reflective metaphor of life: “If you can lock up pain in a poem, you will be able to control life”... Optimism is created from pain.
Honjo seems to have forgotten punctuation. Without periods, commas, question marks or exclamation marks, his poems flow like mountain rivers, to calm down in the first whirlpool and there settle down forever. He inspires power and self-confidence with his poems. In this way they radiate life’s philosophies. With many topics, Honjo is a walking poet, a poet sleepwalker. A poet with pencil and paintbrush in his hand. He writes about everything that he sees or feels. He records each moment that vibrates in his heart and soul, giving it in this way the life form of this world, not letting him get lost in space. He writes and paints writing and painting like an erudite of pencil and paintbrush. He reminds us that life is composed of small things, that, in constant movement, become smaller or bigger, creating in this way the balance of the opposites and make up the world we live in. He sends messages to us that are supposed to pull us apart from inertia and wake us up.
His poems radiate humanism, love for all people on the planet Earth. He is shocked with the absurdity of discord between nations and religions, that have the same starting point – one God and this is why he pleads: “let’s pray in our knowledge and ignorance; he calls for help: “Oh God, stop them and show them the way to love”. The sphinx of life is again asking him: ”People, what are you doing to people in this dark evening while you are praying to Him?”
He is a poet, daydreamer, a man in love, on the planet Earth or some other planet. Some of his poems are real odes of love, composed in one breath, without stopping, so that they don’t run away in the light of lightning, a flash of a star. About love, he sings with love, living for it, with it, or without it. His poems are simple narrations, as simplicity is the key to everything. With refrains, he strengthens and colours the depth of emotions, so that they, like an echo, get to the bottom of one’s heart. He composes them on the go, “on his way home, “and on the way through life. Simply said, poetry is his kingdom. The titles in this collection have been arranged in some order or disorder, and compose one universal poem, a planetary poem.
(Djukan Minjevic, author)