Plush toy

AWARD-WINNING SONGS FOR CHILDREN

IX COMPETITION for the “Musa Ćazim Ćatić” literary award

Meho Jakupović, Kozarac = 3rd place

Plush toy

Where is that teddy bear?

Are you aiming with a big eye?

Towards the room door,

watching, listening, for hours.

Patiently waiting for grandchildren,

to take it in hand.

But to have mercy,

while caressing his ears.

His room is warm, dry,

no bedbugs and no fleas.

And there is no end to this happiness,

when the children’s noise starts.

He doesn’t whine or bark,

The game lasts all day.

They never get tired,

Smiles say it all.

He doesn’t need water, food,

and it’s like that every day.

Nor that dull, yellow one,

nor a tree by the road.

Recession of the members of the jury – professor of literature Ljilja Stojanović

SOFT TOY The usual children’s revival of toys is, with a good rhyme, transformed into a children’s game with a dog that, revived, impatiently waits for the children to play. Cheerful, rhythmically in tune with the theme, the song seems to help parents resist the eternal children’s desire for a live dog. This one has all the features of a real one, but is not demanding. A receptive, classic children’s song.

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Poet Meho Jakupović was born on March 6, 1958 in Kevljani (Prijedor), the second of ten children of Almasa (Husić) and Jakupović Mehmed, better known as Meša.

He attended elementary school in Prijedor, Petrov Gaj and Omarska. He graduated from the “Ivan Krndelj” Railway Technical School in Vogošća (Sarajevo) in 1977. Throughout his education in Omarska, he was a member of the literary section and published works in the school newspaper “Mi i naša djeca”.

During his education in Vogošća, he published works in the newspaper “Mladi Željezničar” as its permanent member. He lived and worked in Omarska from September 14, 1977 to May 23, 1992 as a train dispatcher.

He married his wife Semira (Halak) in 1988 and they have sons Adnan and Amar. During the aggression against BiH, he experienced the fate of his compatriots: arrested, imprisoned and exiled. In Omarska, he remains with material for a collection of poems, which disappears without a trace. From that period, only one song remains, written in 1976, “Don’t cry Marija”, because the author knows it by heart.

After his release, the poet spent some time in Banja Luka and entered the free territory on April 6, 1993, briefly staying in Travnik, Zenica and Tarčin, and for a year and a half in Jablanica on the Neretva River. In Jablanica, he worked as a civil protection commander for about a year, and the rest of the time as a train dispatcher.

On 01.10.1994 he moved to Croatia and arrived in England on 08.11. of the same year, at the request of the British government under the name “Bosnia Project” for the reception of camp inmates and their families. After two and a half years he finally met his family. He was extremely involved in the association BH Community UK London, where he held the most responsible positions in the Executive Board (president for five terms and secretary for three terms), as well as in the executive board of the umbrella association of our citizens in Great Britain, BH UK Network Birmingham (president for four terms and secretary for two terms). He was a permanent correspondent for “Haber”, the only newspaper published in the Bosnian language in England.

At the contest for the Novosarajevo pen in 2011, his song “Good morning, Prijedore” won first place. He lives and creates in London (Isleworth).

Published biographies

• My life and poetic biography was published in a publication issued by the Ministry for Refugees and Displaced Persons entitled “Who is who in the BiH diaspora” in 2012, and in the biographical lexicon “Who is who in BIH” in 2014.

Published works:

Memories of Donja Mahal, collection of poems, KNS, Sarajevo, 2010.

Shared song collections:

Gravity of words, joint collection of works, KNS, Sarajevo, 2008.

Balkan pen, joint collection of works, KNS, Sarajevo, 2009.

Gates of East and West, joint collection of works, KNS, Sarajevo, 2010.

Spiritual Connection, joint collection of works, KNS, Sarajevo, 2011.

Out of reach, joint collection of works, KNS, Sarajevo, 2013.

Homeland – Shared Memories, Ada Verlag, Germany, 2015.

Parallel worlds, KNS, Sarajevo 2017.

Divine Woman, Cultural Center Mesopotamia, Belgrade, 2018 and 2019.

Amazon from the Una and Defenders of Kamengrad, joint collection of poems, Musa Ćazim Ćatić, 2018.