PAMPHLET

Poetry that becomes a pamphlet ceases to be poetry.

Renaat Ramon - In an interview with Alja Spaan in Meander, 13-02-2025.




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

FLOATING

Poetry floats between philosophy and music.

Marcel Obiak - From: Baal & Stuip, 7/8, 1965




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

UNIVERSE (3)

A poet who likes a painter can’t really avoid seeing the paintings of that painter as living beings, perhaps as persons and, if that is not allowed, at least things with their own universe on which the painting gives a glance. If the viewer remains the same, the painting can no longer change.

Cees Nooteboom - from his book Voorbije Passages




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





A good poem is a contribution to reality. The world is never the same, once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape and significance of the universe, helps to extend everyone's knowledge of himself and the world around him.

Dylan Thomas





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

ONE-OFF

With my poems I communicate the vicissitudes of communication. Language is a system, and a system works by generalizing. Generalizing is always falsifying because reality is constantly different, it is a one-off.

Mark Insingel





www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

THEOLOGY

The theologian uses the words, with a poet it is the other way around: the words use the poet.

Guillaume van der Graft (pen name of Willem Barnard)
From an interview in the Flemish magazine Knack





www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

CATHEDRAL

For me, a poem is an image in itself, just like those medieval cathedrals that formed an image of what it would be like in heaven. The idea behind it was that if we do our best, we might be able to make something just as beautiful as later in heaven and moreover, that structure can help us to get there, in that real heaven.

Willem Wilmink





www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

AFFIRMATION

I believe that every poem I write is an affirmation of my supreme freedom, despite my attachment to my body, society, the environment, my friends... Poetry has nothing to do with reality; it is, as Artaud said, working in eternity.

Leopold M. Van den Brande
De Nieuwe Gazet, 08-01-1972



www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry