Most victims of my autobiographical verse are either far too polite, remarkably understanding unaware that I have written poems about them.

- John Barton

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

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

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

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

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

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

You can never step into the same book twice, because you are different each time you read it.

- John Barton

Who is the ideal reader? God only knows.

- John Barton

To me many short poems read and write like beginnings that simply whet my appetite; I want to get over that.

- John Barton

The reader's challenge is to replicate the experiment by reading the poem and to draw their own conclusions.

- John Barton

The poet must decide not to impose his feelings in order to write without sentimentality.

- John Barton

Some readers allow their prejudices to blind them. A good reader knows how to disregard inappropriate responses.

- John Barton

Reading should be a repeat performance.

- John Barton

Poets can't resist the dramatic pull of their lives and so inevitably write autobiographical verse.

- John Barton

Poetry is but another form of inquiry into the nature of phenomena, using with its own unique procedures and tools.

- John Barton

If poetry alters the way in which the reader views the world, then it has had its desired effect.

- John Barton

In the past, poetry came in the form of spells and chants used to effect change.

- John Barton

I would not say I chose to write long poems on a conscious level. The long poem has been a relative constant.

- John Barton

I feel very connected to poets across the country.

- John Barton