'The reader I really write for ...' John Tranter

'The reader I really write for is me, and I want to write a poem that will surprise myself. In that sense, I am writing to reproduce a reading experience. In a subjunctive way, my reading constitutes my writing. When looking through a poem or piece of prose by someone else, the phrase Were I to have written this ... yet each successful poem I write is already written when I read it, by me. No poem I ever write — after I’ve rewritten and rehearsed every possible alternative — can surprise me. Unlike my lucky readers, I am doomed to stumble over the obvious on every page.'

John Tranter, http://johntranter.com/prose/poetics.shtml There so much more on Tranter's website. Take a couple of hours off and enjoy it ...