Dirty Snow

by Tom Wayman

Tom Wayman's newest collection of poems, Dirty Snow , unflinchingly considers the impact of the Afghan its absence and presence in Canadians' everyday lives as citizens of a nation at war.

The collection explores Wayman's view that Canada's military intervention in a civil war between two odious sets of combatants has degraded Canadians' quality of life by, among other means, the conflict's relentless absorption of public funds in pursuit of dubious ends. Wayman is also concerned with echoes of the Afghan War in the personal sphere, particularly the war's effect on the natural world in the mountain valleys of southeastern BC where the author makes his home. Dirty Snow reveals how life in wartime taints our perception of the landscape, and how the natural cycles provide solace despite the moral and economic quagmires in which the inhabitants of the twenty-first century are attempting to conduct their lives. From the drone of bagpipes on Kandahar Airfield to jet bombers dropping Canadian schools and hospitals on far-flung Afghan villages, Wayman is a master of potent imagery, approaching his subject with a voice that is passionate and dark, all interwoven with prose introductions, allowing readers the sense that they are present at one of Wayman's engaging public readings.

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

First published March 16, 2012

About the author

Tom Wayman has published nineteen poetry collections, edited six anthologies of poets writing about their employment, and published three collections of essays on labour arts. He has taught at the post-secondary level in the United States and Canada and co-founded the Vancouver Industrial Writers Union and the Vancouver Centre of the Kootenay School of Writing. Wayman has been the recipient of several significant literary awards over his career, most recently the 2013 Acorn-Plantos Award for People’s Poetry for his book Dirty Snow.

Reviews

[Linda Crosfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wayman's poems are such a delight to read. He has a deft way of turning subject matter on its ear—how many times, for example, do you read/hear about teachers who do their best in spite of ungrateful students (Tom himself has one in an earlier collection)? In Dirty Snow, there's one called "Teachers From Hell", and it begins

The professor who equates her pedagogical success
with her students' defeats: the more of them she fails
the more standards she has upheld

and hence the better teacher she is

This collection differs from (the many) others of his because of the prose introductions that preface each piece, stepping-off points that indicate what brought on the poem. An interesting device.

There are serious poems, many of which examine Canada's role in the Afghanistan war. There are poignant poems that deal with love and loss. And there are laugh-out-loud funny ones, the best example of which is "Leonard Cohen Didn't Get Me Laid". It's worth the price of admission alone!