POETRY: KEN BABSTOCK

“A poem is a kind of virtual reality,” says Ken Babstock. “It’s just the temper inside those two terms, or the tone, or weight you give those two.” As the poet’s career has progressed – from his critically acclaimed 1999 debut, Mean, through his subsequent collections, Days into Flatspin, Airstream Land Yacht, and the 2012 Griffin Poetry Prize winner Methodist Hatchet – Babstock’s work has become more experimental, more concentrated in its focus on sound and syntax. As the former poetry editor at House of Anansi Press and a member (alongside Kevin Connolly and Dionne Brand) of McClelland & Stewart’s newly minted poetry board, Babstock continues to have a profound influence on Canadian poetry. This influence is sure to be extended with the publication of his eagerly awaited fifth collection, out in October from Toronto’s Coach House Books. The aggressively titled On Malice ($17.95 pa.) features poems about surveillance that reimagine Jeremy Bentham’s infamous panopticon for a wired, NSA-dominated world.