The Colours of the Forest - Softcover

Wayman, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1550172026 ISBN 13: 9781550172027

Publisher: Harbour Publishing, 1999

Synopsis

In this new collection, Canadian poet Tom Wayman, long honoured for his incisive observations on life in the workplace and the classroom, takes a more personal turn. Many of these poems celebrate the gains and losses of "middle-aging," while others reflect on the deaths of parents and friends. Readers of "Life with Dick" and "The Big O" will be relieved to find that, through it all, one quality of Wayman's writing that keeps gaining in vigour is his fine subversive sense of humour.

Considered the guru of the North American work poetry movement, Wayman adds depth to the tradition in his latest work by writing white-collar workers alongside blue-collar workers, drawing on his experiences in both worlds.

About this title

About the Author

Tom Wayman was born in Ontario in 1945, but has spent most of his life in British Columbia. He has worked at a number of jobs, both blue and white-collar, across Canada and the U.S., and has helped bring into being a new movement of poetry in these countries--the incorporation of the actual conditions and effects of daily work. His poetry has been awarded the Canadian Authors' Association medal for poetry, the A.J.M. Smith Prize, first prize in the USA Bicentennial Poetry Awards competition, and the Acorn-Plantos Award; in 2003 he was shortlisted for the Governor-General's Literary Award. He has published more than a dozen collections of poems, six poetry anthologies, three collections of essays and three books of prose fiction. He has taught widely at the post-secondary level in Canada and the U.S., most recently (2002-2010) at the University of Calgary. Since 1989 he has been the Squire of "Appledore," his estate in the Selkirk Mountains of southeastern BC.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE CLOWN

Once she died
she stopped changing
and became so clear

she could reemerge
-- her bright brittle spunkiness
her off-key songs

her delight in balloons
her dogged
practicing

of tap dance
how her body closes in
when she makes love

her limbs and thighs
and face
concentrating

on joy
These aspects of her
and more

week after week
appeared to
members of the Clown Society

who whispered
about the phenomenon
And former members of her audience

noticed an event
a motion
their memory pulled and twisted

until they could name
where they encountered

her

In this manner
she was reassembled
in other existences

part
by part

until she was reborn
with her own mind

altered by the lessons
death teaches

to the living


ANTHEM: UNDER THE HORNED MOON

Often the crescent moon
sails stiffly vertical

Other times it floats
almost on its back

This night
I am driving 1-84 west down Gorges

into the open arms
of a horizontal horn of light

During my years
beneath the moon's phases

I, anxious and exhilarated,
have steadily felt the road

coming toward me like a spoon
toward a baby

the asphalt pouring under the vehicle's
hood, front bumper

The highway's distances
feed me

As I cover ground,
I am simutaneously racing closer

and away
The motion perfect

perfectly lonely

like this moon

Edition details

• Publisher: Harbour Publishing
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1550172026
• ISBN 13: 9781550172027
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160