Evolution

The sixteen prose poems in this collection should be ideally suited to those who prefer their poetry prosy and mainly concerned with philosophical issues or, at any rate, with a philosophical treatment of issues and subjects that could be treated more frivolously if one lacked the intellectual machinery and moral insight with which to tackle them in this way. I suspect that John O Loughlin s first attempt at prose poems, back in Dosshouse Blues (1973-5), was more poetically frivolous than is to be found here; though that would be in keeping with his work of the period. Ten years later and the results are far more interesting, with perhaps a hint of Baudelairian influence here and there, albeit without conscious intention on his part. However that may be, these prose poems are not essays, whatever appearances might suggest to the contrary, but painstakingly contrived pieces which never part company with the context in which they were conceived. - A Centretruths editorial