ENGINE

The heart is the engine of the poem.

Wim van Til



www.alberthagenaars.nl

READER

A poem always supposes a collaboration between poet and reader, a form of co-writing.

Toshimitsu Hasumi



www.alberthagenaars.nl

STONE

An accomplished poem is like a boulder. Compact, finished, complete. I'm in love with stones. One never gets ready watching such a withdrawn stone.

Maurice Gilliams


www.alberthagenaars.nl

POET (3)

For a poet lives everybody else's life
And dies everybody else's Death.

Jacob Israel de Haan


The poet and the calligrapher find each other in the respect they demand for the word, for the letter, for the thin line of letter and character. Therefore alone the publication of a poetry collection may be called a therapeutic moment.

Jef Lambrecht


The poet is the priest of the invisible.

Wallace Stevens


www.alberthagenaars.nl

ANIMAL (2)

Poetry is an animal, a combination
of the softest animals on earth.

Ben Cami


Poetry is an animal
that prowls around the house,
that doesn't jump through hoops.

Harrie Rouweler


www.alberthagenaars.nl

PRIEST (3)

The poet has nothing to tell, for he is writing from a world that he doesn’t know himself. That's the magic he pulls off. The modernist poet is a magician, but definitely not a priest.

Adriaan De Roover



The poet is the priest of the invisible.

Wallace Stevens



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

OPPOSITE

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by all, something that no one ever knew before. In poetry it is the opposite.

Paul Dirac


www.alberthagenaars.nl