Links to the files of which follow the brief
introduction below:–
This substantial
compilation of my complete poetical works combines readerly with non-readerly
poems in what, in general terms, I like to think of as a distinction between
‘concrete’ and ‘abstract’ approaches to poetry, the former being, with one
exception, either rhymed or in free verse; the latter, by contrast, either in
free verse of an abstract - if just readerly (i.e. that can be read) - order
or, like the Contemplations Vol.1, in
patterned and often block-like arrangements which require only to be
contemplated (hence the title).Thus
there is quite a contrast not only between the two types of readerly poetry,
but between them and the two types of abstract poetry, neither of which owes
very much to the other, even though there is a general progression, on both
sides, from rhymed to non-rhymed poetry and from ‘readerly’ abstracts to pure
abstracts such that defy reading as a vehicle for comprehension, irrespective
of the fact that some form of comprehension is still possible on a purely or
largely contemplative basis.Thus there
is also an overall progression, in this compilation of my poetry, from rhymed
readerly poems to non-readerly abstract poems that are yet the product of
careful structuring and not at all arbitrary or anarchic, some of which even
intimate of meaning through what appear to be rhyme-like juxtapositions of key
words.– John O’Loughlin.
John O’Loughlin was born in Salthill, Galway, the Republic
of Ireland,
of mixed Irish- and British-born parents in 1952. Following a parental split
he was brought to England by his mother and grandmother (who had initially returned to Ireland with her daughter upon the death of her Aldershot-based husband) in the mid-50s and subsequently attended schools in
Aldershot, Hants and, with an enforced change of
denomination from Catholic to Protestant in consequence of having been put into
care by his mother upon the death and repatriation of his ethnically-protective grandmother, Carshalton, Surrey. Shortly after leaving high school in pre-GCSE era 1970 with an
assortment of CSEs
(Certificate of Secondary Education) and GCEs
(General Certificate of Education), including history and music, he moved to London and went on, via two short-lived
jobs, to work at the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music in Bedford
Square, where he eventually became responsible for booking ABRSM examination venues throughout Britain and Ireland.
After a brief flirtation with further education at Redhill Technical College back in Surrey, he returned to his former job in the West End
but, due to a combination of factors, left the Associated Board in 1976 and began to pursue a literary vocation which,
despite a brief spell as a computer-cum-office-skills tutor at Hornsey YMCA in the late '80s and
early '90s, he has steadfastly continued with ever since. His novels include Changing Worlds (1976), An Interview
Reviewed (1979), Secret
Exchanges (1980), Sublimated
Relations(1981), and Deceptive
Motives (1981). Since the mid-80s John O'Loughlin has dedicated himself to
philosophy, which he regards as his true literary vocation, and penned numerous titles of a
philosophical nature, including Devil and
God (1985–6), Towards
the Supernoumenon(1987), Elemental Spectra (1988–9), Philosophical Truth (1991–2) and,
more recently, The Best
of All Possible Worlds (2008), The Centre of Truth
(2009), Insane but not Mad (2011) and Philosophic Flights of Poetic Fancy (2012).
