The Modern Death

Originally dating from 1984, this collection of forty-four poems continues in the free-verse style of 'Spiritual Intimations' (1983), albeit the verse is at all times prevented from degenerating into prose through the application of a methodological consistency which continues to favour the definite/indefinite article at the expense of lesser words. More significant of this collection is its greater concern with a general approach to metaphysics, including subatomic theories, which, though far from definitive, enabled John O'Loughlin to dig beneath the surface of his themes to what he hoped would be their spiritual or emotional depths. In retrospect, one can see how much ground he still had to cover - or perhaps one should say unearth? - in order to arrive at the Truth, that is, at a well-nigh definitive grasp of metaphysics. But this was still a significant stage in his progress as a devotee of metaphysics, even if, paradoxically, it took a poetic turn.