Nearly Naked

In Nearly Naked, Patrick O'Neill strips away the pretense and posturing - the fear, really - that prevents people from preserving their integrity in a world that increasingly fails to value that bedrock trait: A college bureaucracy that favors a clean desk over an inquiring mind; a brotherhood threatened by feminists; people who fall short of other peoples' unrealistic expectations-O'Neill holds them all accountable in his poems, which read as short stories. There's a moral to each poem - and O'Neill is a skilled teller of entertaining tales. This book is full of favorite O'Neill characters-his vegan niece, botanist sister, spunky grandma, wife and lovers. They come alive in O'Neill's discerning description and dialog and feel as real as his iconic polka dot hat. --Diane Montz Patrick O'Neill's verse with its wonderfully "everyman" characters brings so-called "common folks" to a literary immortality that demands his inclusion in the pantheon of old and new great poets. --Del Reitz, Ed/Pub Newsletter Inago In Patrick O'Neill's poetry, inner monologues and outer dialogues fold into episodes-vignettes of everyday living. He sprinkles his poems with gentle treatments of the wisdom of animals, the revelations of plants. His poetry is a veritable kaleidoscope of highly interesting slices of life. His empathic style touches the reader's heart-felt spirits while his offbeat wit and subtle irony produce provocative revelations. --Tom Bruneau, Professor Emeritus, Radford University