LitPick Review
Lynda Monahan’s poems in The Door at the End of Everything whisper cool hope over the raw road-rash of the miseries of life. With vivid speech, she takes the reader through things unspeakable. This is lived experience: depression, anxiety, abuse, fear, loneliness, grief, and mental illness. These are hard things. But these are real things. Monahan gives expression to things that are difficult to express, both by those who suffer them and for those who are trying to help. There is so much hurt in these lyrics of life, but there is hope. There is hope outside the sufferer—in nature, in peaceful settings, in relationships that brighten, in the joy of others. These simple mercies are “the things that save us.” These poems are a warm blanket and a campfire for people who have been tossed by wave after crashing wave in life. A rescue, a refuge.
Opinion:
Lynda Monahan’s poems in The Door at the End of Everything really do capture what it means to suffer. Misery is a universal human experience. Sometimes that misery comes from within; other times it is foisted on us because of other people or life’s circumstances. Whatever the source, it is hard. Some days depressed people cannot get themselves out of bed; some people suffering from mental illnesses cannot make even simple things clear; some people suffering from abuse or living in fear are paralyzed in even the simplest of situations. What hope can we give to such people? Getting outside and realizing the world is bigger than you is a good place to start. Leaning into relationships that build you, or help you, or care for you is another good place to start. Realizing what parts of the misery you are responsible for and which parts you cannot control is another helpful distinction to learn. But Monahan’s poems do what poems do: give us hope without all the technicality of things but rather by feeling and heartfelt compassion. Salvation will come; but it will not come from ourselves, but from a source outside ourselves. I believe that source is God, who knows us better than we know ourselves and who wants us to enjoy the hope that He gives. It’s the way of grace by believing in Jesus Christ.
