Intelligence 1.1

What happens to your life when the spies move in beside you? Who knows your secrets, and who knows what are they going to do with them? Monty Reid knows!

Construction had already begun on the massive new Canadian Security Intelligence Service facility and was just about to start on the Communications Security Establishment Canada complex when Monty Reid moved into his new Ottawa home, one block away. During sleepless nights, listening to the constant noise of piledrivers, controlled blasting, de-watering units and cement trucks, he took notes on the progress of construction. It took years.

In Intelligence 1.1, Reid shares the short poems that his notes eventually became. Each poem is five lines long, a nod to the countries that make up the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing consortium. Each poem begins with “I don’t know . . .” in recognition of the advice given to most field agents: if caught, deny everything. Intelligence 1.1 takes the shape of an interrogation with all the questions redacted. Only the answers remain.

This is a firsthand look at the building of intelligence and how even the most provocative and important secrets rely on the very mundane realities of dirt-movers and tower cranes. It is a record of the impact that massive construction projects have on their surrounding communities, and on nature. This is a poet’s take on spies and security, secrets and mysteries, and the conspiracy theories they inspire. As it tracks the hints, evasions, codes and fantasies of the intelligence world, unusual parallels with the production of poetry emerge.

Monty Reid a poet and author of The Alternate Guide and Crawlspace. He lives in Ottawa. His next-door neighbours are all spies.