MANNER

Poetry acts in a divine and unapprehended manner, beyond and above consciousness.

Percey Bysshe Shelley



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IDEAL

First of all, the art of living; then as my ideal profession, poetry and philosophy; and as my real profession, plastic arts; in the last resort, for lack of income, illustrations.

Paul Klee



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LUCK

A poet will always have a sneaking regard for luck because he knows the role which it plays in poetic composition. Something unexpected is always turning up, and though he knows that the Censor (in him) has to pass it, the memory of the lucky dip is what he treasures.

W.H. Auden
From: The dyer's hand



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MOTIVE

Among the several motives which may impel a poet to write about poetry, we must not overlook those arising from necessity or obligation. A young poet may find himself writing essays on poets and poetry, simply because a young poet, if he has any talent for journalism at all, can earn more money by writing about other poets' poetry, than he can by selling his own.

T.S. Eliot



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NOTHING

Poetry has no truth, not anything to determine, it only has itself. It is nothing and yet it is there. One must have a special gift to discover that nothing.

Nic van Bruggen

From: 'Portret van een jonge man als een dichter'; De Periscoop, ed. July-August 1962, Brussels.


Sent by Bert Bevers
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WORK

If Goethe had had to prepare supper, salt the dumplings;
If Schiller had had to wash the dishes;
If Heine had had to mend what he had torn,
to clean the rooms, kill the bugs-
Oh, the menfolk, none of them would have become great poets.

Emerenz Meier (1874 – 1928)



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