I Will Be Corrupted is a collection of poems about a man who suffers from serious depression but is able to appear normal and live somewhat of a normal life. And yet what he sees and experiences in his everyday become poems and an insight into the mind of a kind and gentle person who wants to understand why he is here.
once I sat down and had / tea with a sasquatch / and he said he had seen / all the mountains on earth / and I believed him as / he sipped his tea and stared / off across the valley to the / snow-capped mountains above.
Praise for
I Want (2015): [Joseph] Dandurand writes out of deep love and commitment to the land, to his ancestors, to his people, to his kids, who “grow up without abuse.” Hands down, Dandurand is one of my all time favourite writers … Good Lord—what a voice!!!!
Richard van Camp
Joseph A Dandurand’s thirteenth book of poetry, I Will Be Corrupted, is a powerful work in its depth and craft and beautiful in its simplicity and form. With raw, relentless energy, Dandurand, a member of Kwantlen First Nation on the Fraser River near Vancouver, writes honestly about his life and past: the trauma caused by colonialism, Catholicism, addiction, and trauma, as well as the healing found in cultural traditions, spirituality, fishing, and writing. I Will Be Corrupted is a mature work that finds a measure of acceptance in past injuries and mistakes but also acknowledges a complicated future. For Dandurand, ‘corruption’ is turned on its head and becomes a channel of healing.
Al Rempel, FreeFall Magazine
Awards
- First Nation Communities Read Awards (longlisted)