A literary journal is intended to connect writer with reader; the role of the editor is to mediate.
John Barton

An experienced reader uses the poem as an agent of inquiry. This makes poetry very exciting, unstable, and interactive.
John Barton

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

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

I feel very connected to poets across the country.
John Barton

I find it exhausting to administer a magazine without an office or paid staff.
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

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

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

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

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

No poem is easily grasped; so why should any reader expect fast results?
John Barton

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

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

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

Reading should be a repeat performance.
John Barton