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