ORCHESTRA

The poem is not made of words, but of what the words say to each other and do with each other. Take an orchestra, for example. You have sixty excellent musicians who together can ruin a score, or sixty mediocre musicians who produce a very successful sound image. The poet is not a singer or instrumentalist, but a conductor who carefully and lovingly selects his orchestra members —his words— and sets them to work from a distance. The poem is not made of words, just as passion is not made of two people, but of what happens between them. A boring man and an ugly woman: what fire might not blaze between them if the stars align favorably. The same goes for two ordinary, seemingly boring and ugly, worn-out words. Give them the right place, and they accomplish wonders.

Leonard Nolens




www.alberthagenaars.nl


Also see:
Frozen poets - Statues, tombs and other traces of hundreds of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry