Samson Gelkhvidze - The Sacrament of Poetry or Confession in Verse - 2002 Collection of Poems
“Poetry is my vocation, my destiny, That for which fate commanded me from heaven to earth.” “My essence is - my pain and my feelings, without which I am far from me.” Samson Gelkhvidze
“THE SOLID HEART HUMS EVERYWHERE” (Editor's Note)
These words of Vladimir Mayakovsky are the most suitable for characterizing the poems and poems of Samson Gelkhvidze, who for the first time appears before readers as a poet. The “first swallow” on the bookshelf of fiction was the collection of stories “Dealers in Pain” (Tbilisi, 2002), and now we see a test of the pen in poetry.
The carrier of a purely earthly profession of a builder, having scientific contributions to this field of technology and a scientific degree, as it turned out, spends a significant part of his life ... in the sky, carried by the wings of inspiration, and, perhaps, by Merani himself ...
The poems conditionally “sorted into order”-sections of “Poetry” could be indignant and demand “perestroika”, but ... what's done is done! The author used up many, many punched cards that impress him as carriers of original lines, and then the PCs and editors got involved in the work, and there was a “registration” on the shelves ...
“Sounds of the Heart” is not only a section of the collection, it is its essence. The poet's meditation covers, first of all, human feelings: love, compassion, the joy of communicating with nature and Heaven. The troubled soul of the poet, who for a long time vaguely aspired to Heaven, to lofty feelings, to great sacrifices, received calm and access to the Heavenly Father.
Samson became a devout parishioner of one of the Tbilisi Orthodox churches. In many of Samson's meditative poems, the “Heavenly Theme” was clearly expressed and, in his opinion, poetic creativity was prompted to him from Above, is a divine gift. Hence the title of the collection. “Poetry is my vocation, my destiny, That for which fate commanded me from heaven to earth ...”
"Poetry in me - from God" sometimes criminal, leading to upheavals and crises. We read this in his Civic Stanzas. “Communities of people - there is no God without…” “People, do not shoot at your brothers…”
A special place in Samson's poetry is occupied by traditional meditative-lyrical questions: the sources of inspiration, creative impulses, the essence of poetry. He shares his feeling of deepest satisfaction when punched cards are written with inspiration and his beloved, which brought poetic lines to life, he can carefully and safely hide on a shelf: “I will take you to a notebook ... on the top shelf, I will put you further away” ...
Samson's bright humor is also manifested here, as in poems about a draft - a guest of the research institute, about his name, etc. Hearty "trials and errors" are presented in the collection with sincere, truly confessional lines, the poet's excitement sometimes spills over the edge of the heart bowl. “I am still sick with love To everyone and everything, But, as before, we are not loved! ..” “... I only wrote, hoped and believed, In the dream of unfulfilled love,” “My essence is my pain and my feelings, Without which I am far from me ... "
The ability for warm heartfelt dedication to friends and everyone in need of help manifested itself in lines that were not devoid of some bitterness. Apparently, gratitude was not always the answer ... What a pity! Such a display of altruism is rare in our hyper-violent 21st century. “I saw human tears, I drank human grief to the bottom…”
When reading love and meditative lyrics, the “spontaneity” of Samson's work is striking. His “spontaneous poems” do not know the “comb” of versification, they are whirlwind and sometimes clumsy, the author has no time to “comb” them. “A pandemonium of thoughts of My abandoned soul…” “In the avalanche of these lines I don’t notice all the mistakes, Rather, I skip them.”
The lines overtake each other, are often repeated, falling under the cruel pen of the editor, but they always feel the beating of a full “fireproof pain”, a sensitive and devoted heart. In one of the poems, Samson repeats several times: “Find a woman with a more feminine soul than me!” I really want to see “creations” “combed” by the author himself migrate from the thick author’s folder to the next poetic collection of analects.
In this collection, the reader will already find many poetic finds, unexpected images and metaphors, and, most importantly, bright feelings. And I also want to wish the poet joyfully, deeply and for a long time to look into the dilated, devoted pupils of the eyes - into “two sunflowers on blue marble”, which he once happened to see! ..
Indifference is the most terrible human feeling, all earthlings must overcome it to refute the sad lines of Samson: “A person’s life is the black box of an airplane, While you live, you are not interested in anyone ...
“A person's life is a bright, bright trace! Moreover, - the poet, who creates Poetry: - "Mine, yours, someone else's!"
Gleb Korenetsky, Ph.D. tech. Sciences,
Associate Professor, State Technical University,
Member of the Federation of Journalists of Georgia