Imagine your shadow burning off the page / As the dear world and the dead word disengage
Don PatersonPoetry, unlike music, is a meta-art, and relies upon non-physical structures for the production of its effects. In its case, the medium is syntax, grammar and logical continuity, which together form the carrier-wave of plain sense within which its deeper meanings are broadcast.
Don PatersonThe poem, in a sense, is no more or less than a little machine for remembering itself ... Poetry is therefore primarily a commemorative act.
Don PatersonSo we start with an oversignifying reader. Those texts that appear to reward this reader for this additional investment - text that we find exceptionally suggestive, apposite, or musical - are usually adjudged to be 'poetic'. ... The work of the poet is to contribute a text that will firstly invite such a reading; and secondly reward such a reading.
Don Paterson