Methodist hatchet : poems

Marooned in the shiftless, unnamed space between a map of the world and a world of false maps, Ken Babstock's poems cling to what's necessary from each, while attempting to sing their own bewilderment. Methodist Hatchet sets the currencies of living, thinking, and writing on a level plain. The symbolic currencies of natural and engineered worlds? the monetary, cultural, intellectual, and experiential? mimic, dog, and evade each other in a brilliant play of contingency and consequence. Even the poem itself? the idea of a poem? as a unit of understanding is shadowed by a great unknowing. Fearless in its language, its trajectories, and its frames of reference, Ken Babstock's fourth book gazes upon the objects of its attention until they rattle, exuding their auras of strangeness. Methodist Hatchet is great, terrifying fun. Shortlisted for the Griffin Poetry Prize and the Trillium Book Award Marooned in the shiftless, unnamed space between a map of the world and a world of false maps, the poems in Methodist Hatchet cling to what's necessary from each, while attempting to sing their own bewilderment. Carolinian forest echoes back as construction cranes in an urban skyline. Second Life returns as wildlife, as childhood. Even the poem itself — the idea of a poem — as a unit of understanding is shadowed by a great unknowing. Fearless in its language, its trajectories and frames of reference, Methodist Hatchet gazes upon the objects of its attention until they rattle and exude their auras of strangeness. It is this strangeness, this mysterious stillness, that is the big heart of Ken Babstock's playful, fierce, intelligent book.