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WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
"Sandra Gugić has reformulated the political poem."
Jan Kuhlbrodt, signaturen-magazin.de
"THE AUDACITY OF HOPE" with which Sandra Gugić has put together these protocols of the present lies in the fact that every person in every moment has the chance to learn new information, new processes and impulses, indeed, to not follow protocols. Change is possible."
Maja-Maria Becker, www.fixpoetry.com
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"In her poetry debut Protocols of the Present Sandra Gugić propels herself across the surfaces and through the depths of the language of today: a magpie method combining on multiple levels. Gugić reaches into the structure of the language, transforms syntax, dissects syntagma, collages word materiel together. When the flow of words comes to a stop, the surface breaks into chains of words that penetrate the depths: logic lie libido, naming shaming blaming. So doing, Sandra Gugić produces three-dimensional wordnets in which she catches the present and transforms it into friendly wordfire, within which she weaves every conceivable discourse of today: refugees, gender, homeland, computer games, food packaging. The violence of the language is at one and the same time put on show and spiked, for this is an idiom we have ourselves financed. Protocols of the Present is a riptide of words from the highwayman age of individualism, in which in three chapters Gugić produces a map of the present, from screaming to writing."
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Presenting selected poems from Sandra Gugić’ first collection of poetry, published by Verlagshaus Berlin in spring 2019 as Protokolle der Gegenwart – ‘Protocols of the Present’.
The selected poems can all be found in part one of the three part book.
Protocols of the Present
A wild lyric ride in the currents and riptides of today
SANDRA GUGIĆ
PROTOCOLS
OF THE
PRESENT
anomiecluster
null hypothesis reality has no time to take place
system shadows in peripheries of imagination
numeric flood synthetic images opaque sonic environments
angstlust beyond forced meaning whether real or possible
sweet play of dividing lines surveying vanishing lines
we as a child alone with the unbearable responsibility
uncommon action in a society of repressed thoughts
demolition of the global system images attack images topple
just because you have the picture doesn’t mean you have the truth
deadlock by interest group history of violence on repeat
search for a viable solution in real time
otherwise all is quiet
every random violence longings wished for desire hunger eat and
be eaten the body as sole opening to the outside world
traditional symbolic cause end and effect as official finding
captured in objective reaction conditions crashtests storm and force
game against rules sexual damming and discharge behind scenes
silent a body falls lifesigns perspirating heart
vis-a-vis emptiness uncertain distance
the smarter one strikes or immediate touch reloading
tension sense of suffocation discharge affects the brain as rabbit warren
the sounds easier to describe than to endure
the hole into another invisible world dreamless endure fall
yield to that which comes all becomes tied to the undertow yield
repeated suction follows tossed aside no mention of solutions
never learnt to balance the pressure maybe just another threshold
disembarkation centre pain barrier put the emphasis on voluntary action
entire body use as brain
the silence rages outside no one’s will triumphs
the years the future as fixed sequence of experiences
long habituated to well-oiled machines and princelings
to implications of the say and unsayable
explain how to go about it then liberation and with what
neither phallocrat nor any random synonym for a typical
female feeling if i were a man i would wait things out in accordance with
the laws of consistency necessity natural order in the first place
nature as decoration the charming influence of dainty tea cups and saucers
nature womanmade the word personality insufficient information
between two points one line strength and question to endure
and nevertheless motor adjustment of the represented in formats
fabricated dissolution rage consumption in international
entities system interpolation renewed wrath
more focused less in control
mood atlas in film the devil is female
love a congenial megalomaniac project
the reality of which we speak here is omnipresent
omnipotent: on all streams in our private lives in politics
while i write these lines i lead a parallel life
of which i myself know nothing renitence and attempted indoctrination
up my sleeve there too sit feelings thoughts more than less
even less liable to reconcile
how did my name get on this form included
i never migrated forfeit all claims recognised
irrefutable belonging no i said and wrote
with the fee for this book i will buy myself shoes
I am a personality. I am selling
reflexivity and ease personalised suggestions
for another life as objection to industriousness
of standard longings that invite themselves into all bodily openings
discover smooth as silk in general is the absolute image of happiness
or naming and language as first hurdle taken for granteds
learned is learned is life value wordplay sentence and supplement
like blow job knees we survey should and is state of phantasms of power
codes and chuckling thighslapping front and centre part of it
were you ever on your knees in front of some guy or something comparable
categories of oppression parenthesised participants
you feel fundamentally misunderstood you wear yourself down
think yourself sore every day always distracted can’t look away
the little boy in the pram sleeps holds still in sleep
his plastic sword wrapped a trail of spit draws lines
horror films depict the break in of atrocity
normality here is the normality of atrocity
horror understanding adjourned the arrival
one letter away
intimations of the poetic
of a gunshot wound
wet between the legs fractured little finger
you use to take care of things not worth the effort this love stands
and falls in pastel anticipation pose intensified colour applied the mood
in this story arc may i speak or be silent the difference
washes out perpetua mobilia swimming swapping colours
from screaming to writing me as chameleon camouflaged insider tip
just waiting to be discovered me tracksuited running in the forest with a right
to completeness intactness the zeitgeist on my back me as pictogram
user manual woman fully house-trained don’t get thoughts ideas
it could all be different than mother brooder me as enchanting
surrogate activity me with the self-confidence of an ass bleached
queen me as top of society me as brutal wasteland
me as penetration in picturesque labiamajoralandscape life-sized
as reconciliation as danger or paradigm of control me as history in
history me as blank popupinup template me as our generation
me as final girl me as focus of a multi-faceted emptiness
me as concept of the edge of europe
me as snapshot from the corner of your eye
me as noise
from screaming to writing
naming shaming blaming bitching moaning we apologise for the
inconvenience the blaming has been kept back too long it can no longer be
treated with this naming shaming has exceeded the limitation period facts
here evidence there don’t let the mob run riot by God start no witchhunts
bitching is unequivocally caught in the subjective or complainer’s trap
moaning one ought have done an earlier better blaming instead revolting
could be something for naming much more pleasant aside from that certainly
would have been more heroic too our position is that no one shaming wishes
to be seen as passive or even powerless besides which at the present blaming
we cannot presume that actions follow or even permanent institutional
change the bitching and moaning before us today shelved for the present
moment not without additional not until additional we have the honour to
transmit herewith
that no order remains
© Sandra Gugić 2019, translation Bryn Roberts 2022
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