As Canadian poetry flounders and gasps for meaning, Ken Babstock stands close by, ready to resuscitate. The critically acclaimed, award-winning poet was on campus at the Isabel Bader Theatre on Friday afternoon to speak about his 1999 poetry collection Mean as part of the lecture series “Literature for Our Time,” hosted by acclaimed writer and lecturer-of-the-year finalist Nick Mount.
Born in Newfoundland and raised in Pembroke, Ontario-one of many towns in the Ottawa Valley, a place Babstock calls “infected,” “a boot camp,” and “a cage” in his poem “A Leave Taking”-Babstock wasn’t always aware of the possibility of being a poet. After Mean won the Atlantic Poetry Prize and the Milton Acorn People’s Poet Award, Babstock was inspired to pen two additional books of poetry, Days into Flatspin, and his most recent work, Airstream Land Yacht, which was short-listed for the 2006 Govenor General’s Award for Poetry (he lost to West-coast poet John Pass’s sixteenth book of poetry, Stumbling in the Bloom).
The event captured the attention of literature and poetry enthusiasts. With few empty seats left in the dimly lit theatre, the audience listened as Babstock read a selection of poems that spanned all three of his published collections, and test-drove a new poem, “Second Life.”
Babstock’s views tend toward literary realism. As he puts it, life “might be as meaningless or meaningful as the fork that fell off the table.”
Babstock’s readings cast a pall over the audience, presenting them with the harsh truth that poetry promises no answers to life’s questions. As Mount said in his discussion, “Mean begins homeless and ends homeless.”
The readings were followed by a Q&A between Mount and Babstock. When Mount asked what profession other than poetry he might pursue, Babstock (jokingly) shot back, “Go fuck yourself.”
The following question (what swear word do you like the most?) was followed by a similar answer, as Mount replied “I think we’ve already established that.”
Last year’s collection, Airstream Land Yacht, is currently in the running for Newfoundland and Labrador’s highest achievement in literature, the Winterset Award. The winner will be announced this Friday.
The next speaker in this series is Christopher Ware, the award-wining cartoonist and author of the graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, on Friday March 30.
For more information on the series visit: http://individual.utoronto.ca/nickmount/readingseries2006-07.htm.
