The poet and journalist from Ulyanovsk Sergey Gogin became a member of the international literary project "The Possibilities". It was organized by the Directorate of the Dunedin - UNESCO City of Literature program (New Zealand). Authors from around the world were invited to write their response to the famous poem of the same name by the famous Polish poet, Nobel laureate in literature Wislawa Szymborska.

During self-isolation, poets from different cities of the world shared their poems, consonant with the same poetic manifesto.

- Wislava Szymborska's poem "Possibilities" ("Opportunities") is similar in structure to Vysotsky's famous poem "I don't like...", only she uses "I prefer" as an anaphora, that is, "I prefer", and is written in free verse, and not in rhymed verse, like Vysotsky's. The poem presents a series of poetic declarations of preference: it is a list of personal choices. Being expressed and comprehended in a poetic form, which rests on the anaphora "I prefer", they are both complete (these are the preferences of one person) and open to development, continuation and addition (by other people). It is clear why this form of verse and its "ideology" is so attractive and fruitful: every person, not necessarily a poet, has his own list of preferences. But poets have the privilege of writing about it, turning preference into a living, self-developing image.

The title of the poem turned out to be prophetic in the sense that the self-isolated poets of the UNESCO literary capitals seized the opportunity. They presented a whole series of paraphrases on the theme "I prefer". There are my four lines there. A line from Szymborska's poems was chosen as an epigraph. Actually, here is my short postmodernist verse, in which not only the line from Shimborska is played, but also the famous saying of Descartes, - says the poet and translator Sergey Gogin.

                                       …not to ask how much longer and when.

                                        Wisława Szymborska

I prefer not to ask

how much longer I'll continue to prefer

and when I'll stop preferring.

I prefer, therefore I am.

On the Dunedin - UNESCO City of Literature website, you can not only read, but also listen to Sergei Gogin's poem (read by the author).

By the way, the New Zealand poet David Howard, already well known to the residents of Ulyanovsk, who worked in our city in the writer's residence in 2019, took part in the action.

With his poem, David Howard wants to support everyone who faced difficulties during the pandemic, including Ulyanovsk residents.

You can get acquainted with the poems of authors from different countries on the Dunedin - UNESCO City of Literature website.
It should be reminded that Dmitry Sadovnikov's poem "Towards the Volga" translated by Sergei Gogin was recently presented at a World Book Day action in Nanjing (China).

reference

Sergei Gogin was born in 1964 in Uralsk. In 1981 he graduated from secondary school No. 1 in Ulyanovsk, in 1986 - from the Ulyanovsk Polytechnic Institute. Since 1989 - in journalism. He worked at the regional radio and television, in the city newspaper "Simbirsky Courier", hosted the author's program at the TRC "Europroject", worked in the journal "Journalism and Media Market" (Union of Journalists of Russia, Moscow). In 1996, he graduated from the American University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in journalism and mass communications. Currently a freelance journalist, translator, Gestalt consultant. Translated from English four books on Gestalt therapy.

Poems and stories were published in collections and almanacs, including in the magazines Neva, Oktyabr, Wanderer, Journal of Poets. He published three collections of poems: "Wells of Dreams" (2000), "Night of the Watchmen" (2008), "Circles of Light" (2016).

From 2014 to 2017 on the stage of the Ulyanovsk Regional Drama Theater there was a one-act play "A Little Man with a Big Heart" based on Sergei Gogin's free verse cycle "About a Little Man", today this performance is in the repertoire of the Ulyanovsk Youth Theater.

Since September 2014, he has been the head of the Eight literary studio, and since February 2016, he has been leading the Crossroads English conversation club. Performs with songs of his own composition.

Sergei Gogin's page in the Journal Hall.