West Kootenay author Tom Wayman will launch his newest collection of poems, Out of the Ordinary, at the Nelson Public Library on Saturday, July 19 and at the Nakusp Public Library, on Thursday, July 17.
Both events begin at 7 pm and are free and open to the public.
Wayman, author of last year’s memoir, The Road to Appledore or How I Went Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place, sets many of the poems in Out of the Ordinary in the Slocan Valley, where he has had his home since 1989. But the poems also range farther afield.
“No question we live in extraordinary times,” Wayman said.
“So, poems here enter into ordinary moments and objects to see what might be learned there that could potentially be useful to help us survive or even thrive in these crazy years we’re living through.”
Dealing with change is a feature in many of the book’s six sections, which include poems on navigating aging and the writing life, as well as confronting the 21st Century directly.
“For Wayman, a poem can be found in virtually anything—an experience, a lost love, the death of a friend, but like the great Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, it can also surface from an aspect of nature,” Ron Verzuh in The Miramichi Reader wrote concerning Out of the Ordinary.
“We are lucky to have him.”
“Wayman’s poems are simultaneously deep, evocative, and approachable,” said Lisa Timpf in assessing Out of the Ordinary for The Seaboard Review.
“Readers who like humour, striking metaphors, and a touch of uniqueness should find much to enjoy here.”
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