Novica Tadic - Death of poet

When I've heard Novica Tadic, greatest Serbian poet of our times have passed away I was terribly sad and upset in that special way. I am not going to share personal memories on short conversations we shared, throughout last 15 years. I want to capture darkness and feeling of hopelessness I was overwhelmed by like most of us , who live in the house of modern Serbian literature, being told about Novica's departure.

No one can come even close to his dark and courageous visions put so marvelously and disciplined in the frame of Serbian language. We are always fascinated with this special kind of doomed poets, poetes maudits or lets say in american manner : haunted. They are well known dark avenue of poetic expression, we could name classical. Those visions ceratinly appear in prose writing, delivering ultimate dark truths in a different, more direct way. In poetry horrors are petrified, barking and screaming their tune to us, but in a shape of cold, dark gem stones, elaborated in the concise, poetic way.

When I was younger didn't completely understand the essence of their expression / I was thinking about those poets as adorable princes of darkness, beautiful and picturesque emanation of horrific artistic origin. Loved haunted poets, so many of them, Lautreamont, E.A.Po, Baudelaire, Rimbaud or novelists, like Conrad, Celine, Ballard and many, many more...Today I know those were/are men who simply did /do care. Their unique talent delivered this horrific visions as their expression of empathy with hardest and most hurtful and dangerous conditions poisoning and tearing apart our human essence.

Takes genuine human dignity to rise to this level of complete expression of poet's vision. The very idea elaborating the most unbearable conditions of our existence is possible, it is a healing by itself, salvation in a word. When it is accomplished with such genial talent, like Novica Tadic did, we can't but feel being saved by one man's human sacrifice and courage. And kindness, above all. Kindness is the key the word I would use as essential hallmark of this great writer and unusual man.

When he is gone/ if he is gone / the world is more dangerous and ugly place, without God again. That's why Novica's departure makes us feel abandoned and unbearable alone again.

Me, also - to the highest extent of human sorrow.

Zen masters say absence of master is infinitely long.