John Barton
John Barton
cannot engaging fact happened notion personally point stop time
We are comfortable with the fact that we cannot know personally what happened in the world before we were born, yet we are uncomfortable with the notion that we will stop engaging with time at some point in the future.
against establish fact football good job strong
The fact that they were more physical, they could establish anything they wanted on the football field. They have two strong backs. They are strong runners, and we didn't do a good enough job against that.
belong close community fact lives poets
The community of poets I belong to is not as close as it used to be, if only for the fact that our lives have become busier: jobs, children, and the like.
poems
To me many short poems read and write like beginnings that simply whet my appetite; I want to get over that.
time
You can never step into the same book twice, because you are different each time you read it.
obvious outset poems unfold
I have been told my poems unfold in such a way that it is not at all obvious from the outset where they are going or how they will end.
board caused deal great literary magazines member prominent submission
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.
either poems remarkably unaware understanding verse written
Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them.
audience censor others poets realise sensitive
Poets have to be sensitive to their audience, but it does not mean that they censor themselves. I realise my audience is diverse. Some will read with empathy and curiosity while others will take offense.
inevitably lives pull
Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their lives and so inevitably write autobiographical verse.
form inquiry nature poetry procedures using
Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools.
absurd amused became colours decides hot intrigued
I became intrigued with colour theory. The absurd pronouncements of the Colour Institute, a group that decides what colours are hot each year or season, amused me.
experience obsessed passage vulnerable
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.
combining intrigued meanings might seemingly unrelated
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.