Wires that Sputter is a collection of poetry by Britta Badour, known also as Britta B., that explodes onto the page.
With skeletons of syntax — paying particular attention to the ways that words and phrases come together — and her words themselves being thrown onto the page in inventive ways, Badour’s writing feels truly architectural. Part of the Northwords Writers Festival roster of authors who were in town this past weekend, this soul-churning collection of poems interrogates how words often provide the foundations of our assumptions about the world around us, and advocates for a greater understanding of the role that language has in the formation of reality.
In other words, this bite-sized book packs a punch.
Constructing whole cities with her sentences, Badour’s poetry is a rich exploration of the ways that we as individuals can be shaped by the words used to describe us and, further, the ways in which we can build ourselves up with words as well. Going all-in on this basic premise, Badour showcases the ways in which words work as architecture, building homes, constructing walls, and forming paths. This architecture metaphor sometimes becomes literal in Badour’s writing, as her words clump up to form shapes on the page.
While some poetry creeps or seeps itself into my mind, Badour’s words knocked down the doors and refurbished the place. This attention to the form as well as the function of her writing makes Wires that Sputter a unique reading experience whether you are hearing the poems out loud or seeing them on a page.
The power that words have to form paths in our lives and take us to new places is personally significant to Badour herself, whose poetry has taken her across Ontario and now up to Yellowknife for Northwords. This wanderlust is accompanied by the existential ways in which being attentive to language and working with it creatively gives you power over your own story.
As a spoken word or ‘slam’ poet, a lot of Badour’s repertoire is never published in written form, so it is exciting to pick up her debut book and see years of work represented in its pages. The author’s attention to the fact that her audience could be approaching her work either in a spoken word format or quietly reading them on a smoky day, and making this collection of poems a unique experience in both formats, adds flair to an already stylish book.
Badour’s poetry is a rich exploration of not only the ways in which we are shaped by the language around us (and used to talk about us) but the ways in which we are able to shape that language ourselves. Wires that Sputter meaningfully shares this life ethos in a way that is generous and at the same time keeps its own secrets and its own time that is inaccessible to readers and listeners alike.
A glorious testament to writing as a craft, Badour is a spoken word poet introducing a bold new sound to Canada.