WILLY SPILLEBEEN

I've actually always wanted to write the perfect poem, but I realized pretty quickly that I always had to start over, and maybe that's why I've written quite a lot of poetry.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

VICTOR HUGO

When I say I, I am talking about all of you, unhappy ones.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

JOSE DE POORTERE (2)

A poet shouldn't flatter through familiarity. Aristotle already knew that the poetic must have something inexplicable, something opaque.




Most readers don't want to be 'torn away' from their familiar feelings; they want to dream about what they haven't achieved themselves yet. The mystery doesn't interest them.



Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

WILLEM KLOOS

Poetry is the most individual expression of the most individual emotion.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

HENDRIK DE VRIES

What turns a verse into a poem is precisely the sense of inner necessity with which intuition unfolds, in sharp contrast to the deliberate intent with which one undertakes an experiment.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

HERMAN GORTER

I wanted to strike the brightest light out of the language – because deep in the heart of the language lives a white light.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

MAX JACOB

Ideas have nothing to do with poetry, it's the inexpressible that matters.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

RENAAT RAMON (2)

Bibliophile editions are the luxurious coffins of poetry.




Honesty is the first requirement for a writer. All literature, not only the so-called confessional literature and the Ich-lyric, is autobiographical. Whether wanted or unwanted, conscious or unconscious, direct or concealed. Mostly concealed because the naked truth is short and seldom engaging.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

LUT DE BLOCK (3)

Writing a poem is like putting together a Rubrick's cube. You have all the colors—words and images—but you have to get them in the right place. And there is only one possibility. After a long time of tinkering, you find the solution, you have the aha-moment. That's it. But with a poem, it sometimes takes months before you find that small word that suddenly makes the poem harmonious. Finished. Not in the sense of a perfect poem, but of a successful attempt. Each poem is an attempt to express something accurately.





When I can't get to my feelings, writing is an emergency solution when all other means fail. And that is not easy. Sometimes you are confronted with that helplessness to be able to express yourself. And in addition with the limitations of language. Music is much more direct in that regard. If writing without words were possible, I would still prefer to write poems without words.





Writing often has something to do with a state of unrest. If I cannot write at such moments, I can no longer bear it. Writing then becomes a kind of liberation, a form of self-satisfaction. For poems, that only means the initial spark for a poem. The proverbial 10% inspiration. The perspiration comes later, at more lucid moments when you are more concerned with language than with ideas.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

PATRICK CORNILLIE (3)

Although I am not 100% in favor of performing, a poem should always be able to be read aloud. It must be melodious. Sound is a bit like the color of the poem and I work hard on it: alliterations, sound repetitions, end rhymes, internal rhymes... They are not there just like that, automatically. Finding the right sound in the right place is very labor-intensive. A poem is made, shaved, polished. Poetry is handmade; it takes a lot of time. Sometimes sounds are also chosen because of their emotional value. An 'o' sound, for example, can express monotony or melancholy.




Only poetry can put a stop to reality, capture things. There is no way to get a grip on reality. Therefore, a poet must create that himself. Sometimes I have the impression that I am always late everywhere, always chasing after reality. Only afterwards do you realize: this and that has happened. If you write something down, you may get a better handle on it.




Flemish is much richer than the standard language. It is also the task of the poet to create neologisms, to be creative with language, to color the language, for example by tearing words from their context, deforming fixed expressions for their own use. A poet must be a bit of an alchemist.





Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

TOM VAN DEEL

In the long run, you realize that poetry cannot simply be the writing down of memories in verse lines. Poetry is much more a matter of depicting, in a concentrated way, deeper things.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

JAN ELBURG

Comprehensibility of poetry is not everything, but intelligibility is.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

SALVATORE QUASIMODO

There’s a reason poets often say, ‘Poetry saved my life,’ for often the blank page is the only one listening to the soul’s suffering, the only one registering the story completely, the only one receiving all softly and without condemnation.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl

RENÉ CHAR

The poem is the fulfillment of love, of love's desire that remained desire.




Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

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

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry



www.alberthagenaars.nl