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.