Gunpowder - Bernard O'Donoghue

'The Weakness is one of those very rare collections of poems which haunt the reader with a sense of intrusive wonder. . . I'm fascinated by O'Donoghue's wry vision, his infinitely gentle manner of displacing our more predictable reactions to things as they are, so that we glimpse their underlying tragedy. ' - TOM PAULIN PASSIVE SMOKING takes up where THE WEAKNESS left off. Many of the poems involve O'Donoghue's Irish background and the collection includes numerous pen-portraits of family, friends and acquaintances, some hilarious, other very moving. Some poems begin in anecdote and memory but transform into parable and allegory. O'Donoghue's tone of voice is very approachable - very reader-friendly - he combines an obvious knowledge of literature with an eye and ear for colloquial speech and a good yarn.