I was honoured and humbled when my friend Michael O’Leary asked me if I would write a blurb for his newest book of poems, OUT WEST. Michael had shared drafts as he wrote and revised the poems, and I knew that they were shaping up to be unique and mesmerizing.
The book is out. I’m excited to share that he has created a mind-altering work of intellect, passion and rare vision. Words that come to mind include adventure, intense, physics, surreal, longing, probing, masterful, unusual, rare. These poems are strange and gorgeous.
OUT WEST is a reflection of the brilliant polymath I know Michael to be – poet, engineer, professional quant, husband, father, a man with as earnest and restless a mind and soul as you’ll ever encounter, steeped in numbers, lit, music, nature and curiosity.
Over years, I’ve swum in many rivers and lakes with Michael, trekked dense forests, explored ink-black caverns, risked death by heat, cold and gravity. I vouch for him. He’s the real deal, an adventurer of the world we see as well as the many possible worlds of the imagination.
Cribbing from Rilke, I encourage you to buy OUT WEST and change your life. You can order it from The Cultural Society today: bit.ly/3VGJBUS
