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

EXPERTISE

Everything requires expertise: profession, politics, education, even love. But there is an audience that turns away disturbed or conceited when a poem cannot be read and understood at first glance. For these people, poetry must be as flat as their own souls.

Adriaan Morriën




www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

CELL

The form in poetry is not a cell or an ornament: it simply is the right and colourful, visible appearance.

Vicente Aleixandre




www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

LABYRINTH

Poetry. What to me is a system, a world palace, a hierarchy, a labyrinth in which I know my way, must for most people be nothing more than a random sound, fibres of a strange world.

Cees Nooteboom, in 'De danser en de monnik'




www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

INDIVIDUAL

A poem always says something different from what the individual parts actually want to say.

Wim Wenders, during an interview about 'Der Himmel über Berlin'




www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

DUTCH POETRY (2)

Dutch poetry begins in 1950.

Simon Vinkenoog




Dutch world poetry begins in 1950.

Paul Rodenko




www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

MEDIUM (2)

As a historian, I am less interested in facts than in the horse and cart, the road, ordinary society. Because the poet is nothing but a medium, he must choose the moments to register things, to give them a form.

Roger M.J. De Neef




What one admires in good poetry, is craftsmanship. Poets don't look at each other for some philosophical meaning they give to life but they look at technical skills. Workmanship of the medium, that is what can be appreciated with others.

Derek Walcott





www.alberthagenaars.nl


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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry