EFFORT

Poetry is like radium; to obtain a gram, it takes years of effort.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky




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

TO OBSERVE

Poetry for me is a matter of observing, and although the non-recognition of two identical objects remains a utopia, somewhere there lies the starting point of what I now call originality: a matter of forgetting, almost.

J. Bernlef




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

TO POSE

I have never posed as a poet, because I have always shied away from people who call themselves poets.

Gerard Reve




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

FRIENDSHIP (2)

A good poem is to me like a good friend: it helps you gain insight. Sometimes that insight hurts, sometimes it comforts, sometimes it makes you laugh, and sometimes it gives you the courage to go on.

Philip Huff




I want to reach everybody with my poetry. Poetry doesn't know friend or foe.

Rendra



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

FAILURE

A failed poem by a great poet is still more captivating than a good poem by a minor poet.

Hendrik Carette




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

SYNTHESIS

Surrealism was for me a true liberation, tied to the social and rebellious aspect of the strikes of '32. The synthesis between poetry and my political beliefs came naturally to me.

Achille Chavee




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

CHANCE

The word was invented by Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet who introduced chance into poetry: surrealism. Essentially, surrealism has its origins in a fundamental belief in poetry, in the unconditional life force of poetry. It aims at a total liberation of the human condition (une libération totale de l'esprit) and implies a revolt against the existing society.

Alain Delmotte




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

CLASS SYSTEM

Poets and painters are outside the class system, or rather they constitute a special class of their own, like the circus people and the Gypsies.

Gerald Brenan




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

IMPULSE

I write poetry because I can’t disobey the impulse; it would be like blocking a spring that surges up in my throat. For a long time I’ve been the servant of the song that comes, that appears and can’t be buried away.

Gabriela Mistral




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

BLACKSMITH

My father was a blacksmith, a craftsman. He made things that fit together firmly, horseshoes that had to fit exactly on that horse's hoof. A fence or a plow, robust items. I have the same desire, although I try to create a good object from words. I would prefer for people to say of my work: it is a good craftsman who made this. And if that isn't too big a word, there is also a philosophy behind it: I want to capture the essence of things. Poetry is a quest through language for what is essential in life. In that sense, writing for me is actually removing, editing, until those words remain in all their loadedness.

Roland Jooris




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

VISUAL ART

I consider visual art as poetry, a form of writing, or writing a form of visual art.

Claes Oldenburg




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

CHESS

Writing poetry is like playing chess against yourself, a game where the pieces are moving you!

Albert Hagenaars




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

ILLUSION

Poetry can be as potentially redemptive and as illusory als love.

Seamus Heaney




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

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