"The Hidden Eyes of Things completes the trilogy on poetry and consciousness begun in Phosphorescence of Thought (about the evolution of consciousness), and continued in Earth Is Best (about altered states of consciousness). The Hidden Eyes of Things explores the unconscious through the discipline of astrology."
"In THE HIDDEN EYES OF THINGS, we travel through far reaches of the solar system—from “the silver of twilight” on Mercury, to the vast sea of hydrogen on Jupiter, to the “endless collisions of ice particles” in Saturn’s rings—in order to explore the unconscious. Guided by the conjunctions and oppositions of astrology, Peter O’Leary finds reciprocity between alien planetary atmospheres and the most intimate forces that shape a life. His poetry draws on oneiric imagery, recherché diction, and incantatory repetitions, in building toward an uncanny vision, the deep-felt familiarities of human life turned mournfully apocalyptic and sublime."
Earth is Best: "In a time of ecological crisis, Peter O'Leary finds in mushrooms 'an elaborate pattern,' a circulation of energy, a strange Kingdom with the power to alter consciousness. From the opening line 'Earth is best,' each proposition takes root in the terroir of soils, in the woods and meadows of the Upper Midwest and Pacific Northwest. On each foray, we find hidden systems bearing fruit, 'crowning from the duff of white pines / and birch trees,' extending upward from 'loam's rich undying gloom.' Equally, these poems bloom from a rich mulch of linguistic inheritance, a compost of ancient texts and esoteric knowledge, searching out old words of exquisite exactitude and resonance. As readers, our attention quickens as we join the hunt, discovering elemental pleasures on every page, sometimes with the prickling onset of psychedelic consciousness. And like fungi, these poems work to break down false oppositions, returning us to a reciprocity between death and life, panic and joy, anxiety and euphoria, tocsin and cure."
