Q: Your poems seem more like outbursts of what you see, rather than your
perceptions on them. Do you thus, consider yourself a modern poet?

A: I'm not sure that ‘outburst’ is the best word, but you're right that many of the poems resist direct judgement of the thing. To the extent that my poetry is an attempt to work through the exciting and difficult marriage between sincerity and irony, it is more Romantic and Modern - or, perhaps, post-modern is finally the best label for such work.

Q: Technique and diction are very strategically crafted in your poems, especially ones like Natural Curve, Hotel Oriental and The Mountain Lion. Tell us about your inspirations when adopting a particular experimental frame for a poem.

A: I am glad you noticed the control of diction, and form. I'm interested in creating poems that play with and across the entire poetic canon, at least since Shakespeare, so I often deploy eclectic strategies. Sometimes the formal choices are arbitrary, cutting against the grain of the "organic form" school. At other times the subject does recommend a form. Sonnets, for example, are still wonderful for love.

Q: Tell us something about the poems, Tokyo Elevator Girl and I'm in love with a German Film Star. Are they related somehow?

A: These are pop culture poems - one "Eastern" and the other "Western". The first is about order and formal control (The Japanese elevator operator is restrained and careful in her precise movements) in one's chosen art; the other is about release, based on an 80s alternative song. I often spin off into worlds or moods or moments, based on situations that might be lifted from an MTV video, or some similar image-based fantasy - the idea is to imagine oneself into the style of such a construct. To find the depths of
being in or above the surface aspects.

Q: Why do most of the lines in your poems begin with small letters? Is it the need of the theme or is it a deliberate effort to boost individuality?

A: I don't think this is the case, actually. Half the time I start my lines with the upper case. Actually, that's more individual - almost all English and North American poets use small letters to denote a line that is continuing from a sentence that began somewhere above that line in the poem - upper case only resuming after the full stop.

Q: The Oil and Gas University, The Ministry of Emergency Situations, The Soviet Women Pilots of WWII - The Night Witches sound more like phrases from newspaper headlines provoking immediate curiosity. Tell us something more about such not-quite-exotic titles?

A: I often get title and poem ideas from the news, from Internet documents, from the political tensions unfolding around us now. I believe that poems can be "political" without losing their ambiguity or irony.

Q: Who or what inspires you?

A: My wife; God; my parents; memories of my hometown, St. Lambert; strategy games; snow; travel; pop music; film; other poets-theorists, such as Denise Riley and Charles Bernstein. I love Wallace Stevens, Ezra Pound, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Dylan Thomas, and think Frank O'Hara found a great flow. My mentor when I was younger was the major Montreal writer Robert Allen, who died recently.

Q: A book you can't imagine not having read -

A: The New Poetry, by A. Alvarez. It turned me on to poets like Berryman, Plath and Lowell - my favourite mid-century Americans. One of the highlights of my life was spending an afternoon with Alvarez talking of poetry in London last year.

Q: Quebec - 50 years from now -

A: Hopefully not a separate country. I support Canadian federalism, bilingualism and multiculturalism - basically, the Trudeau Vision of Canada. I recently co-edited Language Acts (Vehicule Press, Montreal, 2007), the first serious study of Anglo-Quebec poetry in the last 40 years, with Dr. Jason Camlot. As the Francophone community becomes more confident in Quebec, they've begun to have a dialogue with English poetic practice -
there's a great history in Montreal of it, since Modernism in Canada began in English Quebec in the 20s and 30s. I hope that in 50 years Quebec will be a more stable province, with a balance between its various communities.

Q: Favourite TV show (not written by you) -

A: Ha - I don't much like any of the TV I wrote anyway. Has to be Brideshead Revisited. Closely followed by The Jewel in the Crown.

Q: Have you read Indian poets? Is there any particular poet in India who inspires you?

A: Yes, I read Indian poets. My favourite is Ranjit Hoskote - he's the best of the new generation writing in English, I think.

Q: You said somewhere that your poems are 'often misread, misunderstood and
ignored'. What makes you think so? Is it only due to a lack of 'willingness to appreciate polar extremes' or is it the apparently incomprehensible nature of your poems?

A: My poems are no more ignored than most others. Poetry is a marginal interest, like Chess. Some people are very good at it, most don't seek it out. However, the publishing world, as you know, is dominated by a few very large companies, who happen to have small boutique poetry imprints or lists. The problem arises when these large companies, with their disproportionate marketing heft, then release their poetry product into the world at large. It's no one's fault (blame capitalism if you will) but it means readers who want to know what is really happening in the poetry world need to look beyond the simplistic versions presented by these few powerhouses. As for my poetry being incomprehensible: says who? Compared to much poetry, my work is achingly coherent. In fact, I am currently exploring more opaque strategies. But poems are more like music than cookbooks - they shouldn't be followed to the letter for meaning, but are moods that wash over you with their form and sound.

Q: Your message for aspiring poets at Rhyme or Reason -

A: Keep writing. Don't ever let anyone tell you you're no good. Read a lot of ontemporary poetry. Edit and revise every poem at least ten times. Have a sense of humour. Be kind - too many poets use their so-called "genius" as an excuse to air their personality disorders. Try and make the world a better place (but don't expect the poems to do all the work for
you).

Todd Swift is one of the leading Canadian poet-editors of his generation (those under 45). He is the author of four critically-acclaimed collections of poetry: Budavox, Cafe Alibi, Rue du Regard and Winter Tennis. He is the editor of seven international poetry anthologies, including Poetry Nation, 100 Poets Against The War, and Future Welcome. In 2005 he edited a special section, "The New Canadian Poetry", for New American Writing. He is poetry editor of Nthposition. His poems and reviews have appeared widely in journals including Agenda, Books in Canada, The Cimarron Review, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, Jacket and Poetry Review. He is Core Tutor with The Poetry School. He has been Oxfam Great Britain's Poet-in-residence since 2004. Al Alvarez has written of his latest collection that it is "sophisticated, ingenious, often moving and always blessedly, unashamedly elitist".

Please click here to read some of the poems by Todd Swift.
They were published on Indian journal, Atlas and the British journal, The Wolf.

Ralph Waldo Emerson spoke of two classes of poets - the poets by education whom we respect, and poets by nature, whom we love. Click here for a very personal and introspective tryst with the ones who lace our lives with passion, beauty and hope.
 

Interviewed by Devapriya Banerjee
Designed by Subhadip Mukherjee