Steppin’ out Tales from the Trail: A Book of Oral Poetry

By Richard Michael O’Meara

KIRKUS REVIEW
These collected poems trace a soldier’s lifetime journey and his experiences of peace and war.
O’Meara has written both fiction and nonfiction. This is his first book of poetry, arranged in roughly chronological order from childhood and adolescence to young manhood during the Vietnam War era and reflective later years. Besides movement along a timeline, the poems also track the speaker’s path to self-understanding, as mapped in the opening piece, “Starting Out.” This is a concrete poem whose diamond shape echoes the speaker’s ballooning self-importance —his “place in the history / of things”—that then narrows to a wiser humility: “Surprise, it was / never ’bout / me.” O’Meara’s voice is flexible, sometimes solemn, sometimes casual, as in “Michael,” set in the midst of the Vietnam War: “When I came back / Michael had been dead six months. / There were bands / playin’ in Central Park; / Jesus freaks were lovin’, / all the world was carin’.” The bright scene, the lines’ musical lilt, and the speaker’s slangy voice make a powerful ironic contrast with the poem’s bitter reflections, nicely capturing the speaker’s feelings of loss and anomie. Overall, the poems emphasize the pathos behind even the best memories, because their reality fades: “ ’Course all them ghosts, / the moms ’n dads, / the kids ’n friends, / they wander off.” On some occasions the poems can become sentimental, as in “For a Soldier”: “Remember him, / For, if he could, / His gaze would reach across the shores / And melt into your heart.” This idealized figure bears little relationship to the more authentic, badly frightened young soldier in “Nuts,” “who said / Cuttin’ ears… / was the way to go.”
Intriguing poems about history and a warrior’s trajectory with a strong sense of pathos.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781663240859

Richard Michael O’Meara

Richard Michael O’Meara is a retired soldier and trial attorney who lives with his wife, Mary, on an island in southern New Jersey.

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Copyright © 2022 Richard Michael O’Meara.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-4084-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-4085-9 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 06/09/2022

CONTENTS

I. STEPPIN’ IN

1. Starting Out

2. Snowtime

3. Aunt Mary

4. Denouement

5. When I Was Five

6. To Dad (1917-1964)

7. The Start Of Somethin’ New

8. Who Knew?

II. STEPPIN’ UP

9. Bowen

10. Meeting John

11. To Mary

12. There Will Be Memories

13. To A Little War

14. Michael

15. There Is More Death

16. Nam Song

17. Black Power

18. Martha Ray

19. Religion

20. Through The Nipa

21. Two Nights In A Leper Colony

22. Rocket Man

23. The Lingering

24. Woodstock ‘68

III. STEPPIN’ OUT

25. Kerry

26. On Turning Five In Springtime

27. In Morning

28. To Kate

29. Beaches End In Time

30. For Michael Timonthy Not Yet One

31. Father’s Oughta’ Have The Right

32. Itch

33. Arts ‘N Crafts

34. The Dream

35. Voire Dire

36. British Engineers (Northern Ireland, 2000)

37. How To Bury A Fireman (After The Trades)