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, 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 the majority of the poems in this ubstantial collection which, as stated, are distinctly philosophical and the product, in consequence, of a disguised philosopher, a philosopher, if you will, in disguise, like the hooded author's indirect self-portrait on the eBook cover.