Paper short abstract:

I study the poetry of a long-time Bulgarian protester and his technique of mimicking the rhythm of past revolutionary poetry and argue that this technique can help us rethink time, agency, the political, and authorship from a perspective that maintains a focus on that which could be.

Paper long abstract:

By studying the poetry of a long-time protester known in Bulgaria simply as grandpa Yolo, this paper explores how poetry could be used to negotiate and intervene into a precarious present by seeking to attune to lost worlds and the hopes and imaginations they sustain. Grandpa Yolo uses most of his tiny pension to write and print poetry that calls for a revolution today. I trace a specific technique that he has developed, one which he considers as one of the most important discoveries for his poetry writing: he strives to capture and mimic the rhythm of past revolutionary poems in his poetry writing and reading. While the language in grandpa Yolo's poems remains critically engaged with the present and its crises, the rhythm borrowed from other revolutionary poems provides an evidence of something shared and works to re-establish attachments to past struggles and imaginations. The rhythm allows for the creation of a shared empathic experience that promises belonging and togetherness in a-could-be future. I argue that grandpa Yolo's poetry can help us rethink time, agency, the political, and authorship from a perspective that maintains a focus on that which could be, rather than that which is.