CONTENT (2)

Observation of any kind is, like argument in prose, properly previous to the act of the poem, and, if allowed in, must be so juxtaposed, apposed, set in, that it does not, for an instant, sap the going energy of the content towards its form.

Charles Olsen (From: Projective Verse, 1950)
(sent by Bert Bevers)


Each memorable verse of a true poet has twice or three times the written content.

Alfred de Musset


www.alberthagenaars.nl

SOLDIER (2)

Poets are soldiers that liberate words from the steadfast possession of definition.

Eli Khamarov


Only three beings deserve our respect: the priest, the soldier, the poet. To know, to kill, to create.


Charles Baudelaire




Also see:
Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry


www.alberthagenaars.nl

CHURCH

For me a poem acts like a church used to do: creating a space for introspection. Poems must not convince me. They sow uneasy feelings, a certain restlesness. One should experience insomnia because of a poem for some time.

Luc Huyse


www.alberthagenaars.nl

WORD-PLAY

Most poetry borrows its characteristics -what we experience as 'poetic'- from images that are au fond word-plays.

Benno Barnard


www.alberthagenaars.nl

PARIS

A part of the year I live in Paris, but I hardly have any contact with French literary circles. I have always regarded contemporary French poetry as narcistic. As if Paris would be the centre of universe.

Breyten Breytenbach


www.alberthagenaars.nl