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.“
• "No poem is easily grasped so why should any reader expect fast results?“
• "Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems.“
• "An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive.“
• "Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools.“
• "In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change.“
• "If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.“
• "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.“
• "Writing can sometimes be exploitative. I like to take a few steps of remove in order to respect the privacy of the subject. If readers make the link, they have engaged with the poem.“

Other authors you might be
interested in

Ferdinand Marcos

Marcel Proust

Orison Swett Marden

Anthony Burgess

Demetri Martin

Patrick Henry

Mitt Romney

W. Clement Stone

Robert Plant




Browse all authors