John Barton
John Barton
cannot poems tinker
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.
agency attorney defend strongly
Our attorney will strongly defend the agency in this case,
chose poems relative
I would not say I chose to write long poems on a conscious level. The long poem has been a relative constant.
deep nice people three worry
Jake has done a nice job, but all three of our receivers have, but people worry about Jake on the deep ball.
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.
combined elements experiment hope interest mostly poem pulling various
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.
people
We have to have people in the right position, we have to do something to get in straight.
extra field goals points work
We work on extra points and field goals every day, every day. To have that let us down is very tough.
draw experiment replicate
The reader's challenge is to replicate the experiment by reading the poem and to draw their own conclusions.
arrive deliver disprove experiment prove reveals
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.
impose poet
The poet must decide not to impose his feelings in order to write without sentimentality.
competition patient ultimately wins
With this competition the patient ultimately wins out,
engaged few readers remove respect steps
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.
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.