The Michael Hogan Reader

The Michael Hogan Reader arrived in the mail today, and, as I opened the package, I recalled that day a dozen years ago when I received by Mexican courier my copy of Abraham Lincoln and Mexico: The Untold Story by a professor unknown to me at the time but said to be Head of the English and Humanities Department at the American School of Guadalajara, author of 24 books, and historian extraordinaire. So extraordinaire that his history students proudly wear maroon hoodies that read: Hogan’s Heroes!

I was asked to write a review of Professor Hogan’s book for El Ojo del Lago magazine, still published in Ajijic, Mexico where my wife and I lived for seven years. His appreciation of the review earned me a hearty bear hug and an autographed copy. Thus began a collegial friendship and sincere regard for each other’s writing, although I know him to be the maestro, I, the scribbler; he the poet, I, the poetaster by honest compare.

Michael’s latest book is the fourth one I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing – “and that’s not hyperbole,” as Joe would say. His current volume contains several searing short stories, including one (“Alone and Left Behind”) that dog owners and dog lovers should read just to re-establish how lucky we are and remind ourselves of  Pablo Neruda’s memorable lines: [Ed. Note: From his poem “A Dog Has Died”]  “I believe in a heaven for all dogdom/Where  my dog waits for my arrival, waving his fanlike tail in friendship.”

When I came to the Memoir section and read the piece about Allen Ginsberg, I suddenly realized that the cover photo of the wild wolf baying at the moon refers to Ginsberg’s famous savage poem, “Howl,”where modern society kills off its best minds just as it kills off endangered species – Hogan’s wolf howls in support of Save Endangered Species. 

When I run into a writer who unerringly chooses the right word, I spark, I fizz, and I read on expectantly as though settling into a summer hammock of language. The elegant Essayssection treats us to such artistry – the writing of a skilled craftsman at the top of his game, a past master of storytelling, often within a historical context. “The Soldiers of St. Patrick” essay, for example, describes the Irish battalion fighting on behalf of Mexico during the U.S. – Mexican War of 1846-1848. This and other essays remind us that Hogan’s Catholicism is that of emerald green Ireland – Erin Go Bragh!Thatfact alone stands him in good stead in Catholic Mexico where the only things all Mexicans agree on are the proven friendship of the Irish and the miracle and mystery of the appearance of the Virgin of Guadalupe.

I will end in the Poetrysection because Michael and I know that poetry is the highest branch of literature. Was it Stephen Hawking who wrote somewhere that midst all the human and cosmic discoveries we bring to light, we also discover that the poet got there first?

Both Michael and his poetry remind me of a distinguished Mexican poet with a Jesuit turn of mind – Amado Nervo (1870-1919). Educator, scholar, writer, diplomat, and ambassador whose poetry earned him the title Principe de los poetas continentals (Prince of the Continental Poets). Such is Michael Hogan! 

Like any contemplative Catholic, he and Michael know of the struggle, the tension between a soul of faith and a mind of reason; one who is deeply religious yet conflicted because he also believes in scientific proofs and evidence.

Amado:

I am not too wise to deny you, Lord; / I find logical your divine existence;

I have enough by opening my eyes to find you; / The entire creation invites me to adore you,

And I adore you in the rose and I adore you in the thorn.

Tr. Unknown

Michael:

Did you try not to make sense of the senseless

in a world of reflections and glimmers and pettiness,

But to love it all anyway, maybe even concede the possibility

of  deity

even though it was far from evident.

As evolutionary biologists and astrophysicists close in on life’s fundamentals, poets are already gathering to speak of the God particle and the stardust we all are, after all.

It is possible and imperative that we learn

a brave and startling truth.

~ Maya Angelou

***

“I stand at the seashore, alone, and start to think. There are the waves… mountains of molecules, each stupidly minding its own business… trillions apart… yet forming white surf in unison. Deep in the sea, out of the cradle onto the dry land, here it is standing… atoms with consciousness… matter with curiosity.  Stands at the sea… wonders at wondering… I… a universe of atoms… an atom in the universe.”

~ Richard Feynman;  Winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in physics.

If you’re looking for a book brimming with tales well-told and poetry that illuminates life’s enduring ways, The Michael Hogan Reader should be your next purchase.