Merman

These are engagingly written poems using the acoustic play of consonants and vowels so necessary for bringing life and music to the poetry. Accessible and often strongly narrative they are always alert to the comic and everyday even when broaching hard subjects such as illness, mental illness, and death. As always in O'Brien's work, images of nature and landscape as well as relationships and a lively engagement with the ways of the world resonate with grace and candor.