image by Allan Harding Mackay
I just finished reading through Afghanistan Confessions.” I know very little about poetry or about the life of a soldier, but I think the collection is brilliant. I think you’ve captured amazingly all the stuff that I can only imagine is part of the veteran’s experience in Afghanistan: loneliness, confusion, revulsion, bravado, love, hatred, guilt, fear …. I love your titles, the allusions to rock songs, scripture, history…. Some of my favourite poems are: “out of place,” “field work”,” for what it’s worth,”life is a highway,” “the myth of glory,” “I love my job,”and “peace harder to find”. I continue to harbour many questions about Canada’s involvement in this war; but your poetry has given me a much greater empathy and understanding for the soldiers who fought it.
– Esther Epp-Tiessen, Winnipeg.