The author proposes a phenomenological approach to the poetic experience as Paul Celan meant it.Characteristic of this way of experience is the search for an encounter with a "thou" thanks to a peculiar exercise of attention.The original sense of the word attention doesn't denote a technique of observation, but rather how the sensibility of an "I" concerns the sensibility of a "thou", which implies an ethical requirement.Such attention to the other makes use of poetical images, not in a metaphorical but in a phenomenological way, bringing two sensibilities face to face and rendering possible an encounter of them or a failure.The paper emphasizes the pertinence of phenomenology for the interpretation of Celan's work, which doubtless is a summit of the dialog between philosophy and poetry.