In Disguise

If John O'Loughlin is 'In Disguise' here it's because these days he does not see himself primarily as a poet but, rather, as a philosopher, if a self-taught one, who once wrote poems, many of which were of a philosophical order and thus an alternative or formative approach to his philosophy-proper. The 180 or so poems collected together here are all readerly, or capable of being read, as opposed, like the greater part of Mr O'Loughlin's abstract poetry and/or poetic 'word sculpture', to simply being contemplated (because non-readerly), and have accordingly been described as verse (whether 'rhymed' or 'free') to distinguish them from anything abstract, or non-readerly. 'Lyric' might suffice as a more conventional description, but, frankly, that would hardly apply to a majority of the poems in this substantial collection which, as stated, are distinctly philosophical and the product, in consequence, of a disguised philosopher, a philosopher, if you will, in disguise.