To be honest, I was having a rather difficult time reading this book before lecture last week and Babstock's reading a couple of days ago. I had never before encountered poetry like this and was struggling to understand meaning through it. I am accustomed to trying to relate poetry and writing to my own life, but I just could not find emotional connections in Babstock's words.I was relieved to discover in lecture, however, that Leslie agreed that it is often difficult to understand what Babstock's theme or intention is with his poetry. She mentioned, for example, that the poem "Airstream Land Yacht" is actually more focused in sounds and metaphors, rather than relaying an actual message or emotion. Even she found it hard to distinguish what his main point is. It seems as though Babstock's poetry acts as a twisted map through the convoluted thoughts of the poet's mind.
However, Leslie also mentioned that "Stencil Artist" is a more approachable poem with a more traditional theme of love and relationships. As these are themes that I am more accustomed to and interested in reading about, I decided to give the poem another try. I found his narrative about a relationship with a graffiti artist easier to understand after Leslie gave us more background information and eventually discovered the beauty in the poem. I delighted in the imagery of "rail bridges, back lanes, blue dust of building/sites - with the NSCAD dropout (b.68, Khanesetake)/who worked at night with stencils and spray/paint, enlivening the poured forms of capitol/with red and black silhouettes of ordinary people" (23) that could be describing rebellion in almost any Canadian city. And once Babstock references his relationship with the artist he has been describing and discusses how she removed him from her life, I could appreciate how he compares the way she approaches her art work with the way she treated their relationship: "Steady brown knife,/she cut me-expertly-out of her life; the life/I see now I'd been filling in" (23). It is a beautiful comparison that allowed me to finally appreciate the emotion Babstock was putting into his work, even though I didn't see it immediately.
I have learned from reading this book that although I may struggle with it, I shouldn't give up on poetry because it may take a few reads to find lasting beauty and meaning within the words.
