John Barton
Quotes by John Barton
-
I have always been very obsessed with time. Time's passage makes us all very vulnerable and because we all experience it in our own way, it can make us feel very alone.
Read quote
-
In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change.
Read quote
-
I have been told by a member of the board of one of Canada's most prominent literary magazines that a submission of mine once caused a great deal of controversy.
Read quote
-
My obsession with time informs my poetry so completely it is hard for me to summarize it. We want time to pass, for new things to happen to us, we want to hold on to certain moments, we don't want our lives to end.
Read quote
-
I sometimes like to tinker with poems that have failed, ones that I have sent aside. Even years afterward, I will revisit them if there is something about them that I cannot give up on.
Read quote
-
Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them.
Read quote
-
I have become intrigued with the combining of seemingly unrelated ideas or images, or the drawing upon the many, sometimes dissimilar, meanings a word might have.
Read quote
-
An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive.
Read quote