Life Collection

By Mike O'Sullivan

A collection of contemporary verse dealing with issues of our modern way of living and our related concerns. An askance look at topics like the housing market, soaps, rural life, city life, north and south, different places across the UK and Ireland.

All of these and more are taken apart and put back in cryptic observation of the human condition - what drives us, what entertains us, how we are changing – evolving if you will.

In 33 poems of varying length Mike uses his Irish wit to poke fun, in the nicest possible way, at things held dear by many and things we take for granted.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike O'Sullivan
• Release date: Jul 17, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311264978

Mike O'Sullivan

Mike is an Irish novelist and poet, married and living in Herefordshire England. He was born in Dublin and spent his school years in Cork. In primary school Mike needed to get by the eagle-eyed headmaster who looked hard at his long essays designed to hide the words he could not spell. This carried on further up the line when at UCD the Professor of English likened Mike to another who could not spell, George Bernard Shaw. But Mike made the connection, he did not have to be a genius at spelling. He moved to London in his twenties and has worked in a wide range of industries – music and cosmetics, in oil exploration, mining, insurance, catering, City Finance and Management Consultancy. Mike uses that experience in his novels. When he first arrived in London Mike fell in with a group of three other Irishmen debating the philosophical process of making a million or finding a job that was more like pleasure. Mike found the job, but it would take too long to explain his philosophy here. Mike says that in a sense he had a plan for life and so far it has been working out. His novels often start with an individual battling the system but without a plan of how he or she will cope. Mike believes that social systems and institutions are usually rigid when it comes to change or quick decisions and therefore the individual can become trapped. It takes effort, some courage and guile to walk out into the wider world of individual thinking. He shows that an individual can focus enough to even the odds and come out on top. He often uses humour and comedic situations to make his point leaving the reader to consider the underlying philosophy if they wish. A key element of Mike’s writing is the Irish skill of fast paced conversation as Mike’s overall aim is to entertain his readers.

Book preview

Life Collection

by

Mike O’Sullivan

Copyright © 2014 by Mike O’Sullivan

This book is a work of fiction and, except in the case of historical fact, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

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Contents

Soap

A village in Yorkshire

Profits

A cruel dawn 1986

Ferrybridge 1995

The housing market 1995

Along the line in August 2002

Ireland 1995

Snowdrops

Kildare bend

Village gossip

Who can tell?

Sligo mists 1991

Village - cabbage head

Village - carnival

Nation of semi-detached minds

Rethink

The small church by the river

The lanes

Collioure, South of France

The indulgent society

Dangerous living

The match

Anyone can make a mistake

There is jam today

Air

Gorging

The smile on Kippax Hill

The silver land

The City morning

Whispers

Youth of today

Times in Beara

1 Soap

I’ve just checked

there are dead people watching soap on television

the people they are watching

who are portraying normal everyday life

are also dead

it’s a recorded show

Easy to see how dead people can somehow take up on each other

though because they are dead

there is little point to it.

It only seems there is a point

but even if life as we know it moves slowly

for us to be able to make such observations

it is still a run on the mind

like moonlight hitting a silent lake

light from 384,400 kilometres

a shy light in darkness

unfathomable

probably the only true romance

far as it is from source

Back at the soap

mouths open and close

hundreds of thousands of kilometres from source

living on nerves it would seem

if dead people have nerves

for pitching into stress

and dead people are certainly stressed