The Moving Out: Collected Early Poems
brings together all the poems from John Morgan?s first three books,
each of which was chosen for publication in a national competition.
These poems range from masterful short lyrics to longer narratives,
including explorations of history, family and the arts. One ten-part
poem recounts Morgan?s experiences in an Eskimo village at the tip of
the Seward peninsula from which you can indeed see across to Russia.
Another group of poems traces the changing seasons, month by month, from
a ledge overlooking the Tanana River near his home in central Alaska.
The book ends with the moving sequence Spells and Auguries, which deals
with his son Ben?s near-fatal coma due to encephalitis and the long-term
consequences of that illness.