– h.c artmann (april 1953)
there is a premise which is unassailable, namely that one can be a poet even without ever having written or spoken a single word.
however the prerequisite is the more or less felt wish to act poetically. the alogical gesture can itself be performed such that it is raised to an act of outstanding beauty, indeed to poetry. beauty is however a concept which is here allowed a greatly enlarged field of play.
1) the poetic act is that form of poetry which refuses to be quoted second hand, that is to say, it rejects every mediation be speech, music or the printed word.
2) the poetic act is poetry for the sake of pure poetry. it is pure poetry and free of all ambition for recognition, praise or criticism.
3) a poetic act will perhaps only come to the attention of the public by accident. that is however but one case in a hundred. on account of its beauty and integrity it must never subsume itself to the intention of becoming public, for it is an act of the heart and of pagan modesty.
4) the poetic act is very consciously extemporized and anything but a mere poetic situation which in no way requires a poet. every idiot can land in such a situation without even noticing it.
5) the poetic act is the pose in its noblest form, free of every vanity and full of joyous modesty.
6) among the most admirable masters of the poetic act we count in the first rank the satanic-elegiac c. d. nero and above all out lord, the philosophical-human don quixote.
7) the poetic act is completely void of material value and thus from the very start it never conceals the bacillus of prostitution. its unalloyed accomplishment is purely simply noble.
8) the complete poetic act, recorded in our memories, is one of the few riches which we can in fact carry with us without fear of it being snatched away.