Quotes by John Barton - Page 1

Reading should be a repeat performance.
John Barton /
Performance
Repeat
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Who is the ideal reader? God only knows.
John Barton /
Reader
Ideal
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I feel very connected to poets across the country.
John Barton /
Connected
Poets
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No poem is easily grasped; so why should any reader expect fast results?
John Barton /
Poetry
Reader
Results
Easily
Grasped
Poem
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I find it exhausting to administer a magazine without an office or paid staff.
John Barton /
Exhausting
Office
Paid
Staff
Administer
Magazine
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In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change.
John Barton /
Form
Spells
Effect
In The Past
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Sometimes poetry is inspired by the conversation entered into by reading other poems.
John Barton /
Poetry
Conversation
Inspired
Entered
Poems
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The poet must decide not to impose his feelings in order to write without sentimentality.
John Barton /
Sentimentality
Impose
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You can never step into the same book twice, because you are different each time you read it.
John Barton /
Book
Different
Because
Twice
Never
Same
Read
Each
Each Time
Step
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If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.
John Barton /
Reader
Views
Desired
Effect
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A literary journal is intended to connect writer with reader; the role of the editor is to mediate.
John Barton /
Journal
Reader
Connect
Editor
Literary
Intended
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Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their lives and so inevitably write autobiographical verse.
John Barton /
Dramatic
Autobiographical
Inevitably
Resist
Poets
Pull
Verse
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To me many short poems read and write like beginnings that simply whet my appetite; I want to get over that.
John Barton /
Appetite
Beginnings
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The reader's challenge is to replicate the experiment by reading the poem and to draw their own conclusions.
John Barton /
Reader
Replicate
Challenge
Conclusions
Draw
Experiment
Poem
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I would not say I chose to write long poems on a conscious level. The long poem has been a relative constant.
John Barton /
Conscious
Constant
Relative
Chose
Poem
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Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them. A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses.
John Barton /
Blind
Disregard
Inappropriate
Reader
Allow
Prejudices
Responses
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Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools.
John Barton /
Inquiry
Procedures
Tools
Unique
Phenomena
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An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive.
John Barton /
Inquiry
Interactive
Reader
Unstable
Agent
Experienced
Poem
Uses
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Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them.
John Barton /
Polite
Autobiographical
Remarkably
Unaware
Verse
Victims
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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.
John Barton /
Busier
Our Lives
Belong
Poets
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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.
John Barton /
Canada
Controversy
Magazines
Prominent
Submission
Caused
Board
Literary
Great Deal
Member
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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.
John Barton /
Combining
Drawing
Ideas
Intrigued
Might
Dissimilar
Images
Word
Meanings
Seemingly
Unrelated
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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.
John Barton /
Absurd
Amused
Colour
Institute
Intrigued
Theory
Each Year
Season
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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.
John Barton /
Alone Time Experience
Passage
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The point of an experiment is not to arrive at a predetermined end point, to prove or disprove anything, but to deliver a poem that reveals much about the process taken.
John Barton /
Predetermined
Process
Prove
Taken
Arrive
Deliver
Disprove
Experiment
Poem
Reveals
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I consider a poem to be a kind of experiment where a number of elements are brought together under test conditions to see how they will interact to create meaning or relevance.
John Barton /
Conditions
Elements
Relevance
Consider
Experiment
Interact
Meaning
Poem
Test
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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.
John Barton /
Engaged
Privacy
Remove
Steps
Exploitative
Link
Poem
Readers
Subject
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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.
John Barton /
Afterwards
Aside
Failed
Poems
Revisit
Sent
Tinker
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The experiment of the poem is mostly intuitive. I write the first draft, pulling in the various elements that interest me, in the hope that their being combined will lead to some kind of insight.
John Barton /
Elements
Insight
Intuitive
Pulling
Hope Me Will
Combined
Draft
Experiment
Mostly
Poem
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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.
John Barton /
Curiosity
Diverse
Offense
Sensitive
Censor
Poets
Realise
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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.
John Barton /
Moments
New Things
Obsession
Our Lives
Time Poetry Me
Hold
Informs
Pass
Summarize
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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.
John Barton /
Engaging
Notion
Uncomfortable
Future Time World
Personally
We Cannot
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John Barton Quotes - Page 1

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