That We Shall Live

Patrick Van Mil was a freelance writer in Banff, Alberta.

John Hanly Morgan is very much aware of what’s going on in the world and wants to wake us up to it.Reading the poems in this volume, one is struck not only by the number of threats to today’s society (terrorism, genocide, nuclear annihilation), but also by the complacent attitudes which allow them to exist. Basically, our world is “maddened over property and privilege,” giving us, particularly in the wealthy parts of this globe, a “them or us” attitude. Morgan writes in “Refinement”:

Morgan wants change and he wants it now, not at some unnamed future date. He never tells us outright exactly what he wants, but rather implies itby painting ironic pictures of his opponents. In the lines above, for example, he shows our narrow garrison mentality: in our efforts to protect what we have gained, we try to put ourselves on a pedestal of refinement to separate ourselves from the rest of the world. Of course, we stumble in our attempts and wind up only looking foolish and condescending.

Prolonged reading of this volume is, however, very wearing. Perhaps it is because the implications become too “preachy,” pointing an accusing finger at us, making us feel at first uncomfortable, and then downright frustrated. Are we really that bad? It seems there is very little good in the world, except what has been put there originally by nature. Man does very little but cause destruction. Even an abandoned mine site is seen as evidence that man destroys. Morgan never suggests why the mine was abandoned, or the usefulness of such things as mines and technology. These things, however, do not detract from the volume’s ultimate value for it questions “the goal of our actions.” If it’s too much to take all at once, then just read it slowly, in bits and bites, and think about it.