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.