Jim Munro: Fin de Millennium and The Jesus Bhakti Poems
When I picked up the poems by Jim Munro, I was not sure quite what to expect: knowing his successes in the Scottish International Open Poetry Competitions, and sensing something new and powerful, I turned to the "Fin de Millennium".
As one would expect with such a title, the "New Age" theme is important, but not alone. The themes of nostalgia and loneliness, of poverty, homelessness and dreadful social injustice, the themes of true and false religion, are all there, as in the Jesus Bhakti poems. But this is poetry, not essays, and the language used is full of symbolism, contrast, beautiful description, irony and occasional touches of humour. The main impression one is left with is one of powerful, passionate, compassionate understanding of the mysteries of life and religion and the challenge to mankind at this "Fin de Millennium". But more than all, one lives through the very vivid experience of the lone man, the homeless, exiled person, the man who stands for truth, accepts poverty, faces mockery ... and dies in a ditch.
"Fin de Millennium" shocks, and overturns, with the stark poverty, solitude, homelessness, of the "tramp" on the road, unrecognised, ready for death, an "Alien". "He" returns at the end of Section II, where his plight is explained - there is no "free countryside" anywhere for him to sleep, hide, find privacy - the world has changed and at the beginning of this New Age "he" like many others is not just "down on his luck" but "down on his knees", humiliated, left with no dignity as a man.
But Section II is mainly vivid for its dreams and memories of childhood, of green marshes, woods, sea, and its weeping in exile. The return could be made but it is not just geographical, it is historical, it is another world. Not only is the tramp, the exile, an "Alien", he'd need a Time Machine. Two small touches of humour to alleviate the tension. The themes of freedom and justice lost, though not perfect, the themes of simplicity and roots are here.
Will the "New Age" be one under the American dream of Empire or the European Social Dream? The struggle of riches and justice continues ... and so do the lines of refugees, a woman on a donkey (reminding one of Mary) clutching a baby. The "poor little scrap of ethnic garbage" perhaps the most shocking picture, but so real ... continued in the later poems as a starving child dies ... "and another ... and another".
Section IV closes down on the New Age, this age which for many offers "no love, no hope, no cave, no wood": the "Age of No Job No Room". Jesus, who had nowhere to lay his head, is still alive, and he is now in the ditch, not on the cross.
Section V recognizes the man as he stretches out a hand to the refugee woman on the donkey. But "us", the others, the group, those enjoying themselves, speed out of 1999 and into the future, unseeing.
In the Jesus Bhakti Poems, the same solitary man, or boy, faces the crowd, the mockery, the condemnation. But he holds to truth. The author condemns the false religion, the gold-covered priests, the churches of the unknown God, which allow children to die, which lie when convenient. His Man is the Lord of the Night, the Lord on a donkey, the Lord of the open road. The mysteries and contradictions of life, the problems of choice and truth, religion of the heart are portrayed here with deep religious sensitivity.
Deep sadness mingled with irony, the experience of exile and discovery, exploration into the unknown, would not be possible in these beautiful lines, if they had not been lived ... not possible if the woods and marshes of youth had not been left.
Mary Tordeur, Genval, Belgium.
(Or c/o The International Church of Brussels, Belgium)
