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- The Definition of Empty
The Definition of Empty is the story of a dedicated advocate trying to help adolescents facing incarceration and newly released parolees navigate imperfect and seemingly indifferent legal systems and societies. Told from the point of view of a public servant trying his best to work with people at various levels of brokenness, these poems are compassionate, heartbreaking, and even sometimes brutal while the voice is gentle, outraged, and naïve in turns. With this collection O'Neill insists that readers bear witness to the struggles of disenfranchised people they might otherwise ignore.
Bill O'Neill is a New Mexico State senator. He is also the author of The Freedom of the Ignored and the novel Panoramic Diaries. O'Neill has worked extensively with incarcerated juveniles and adults in New Mexico.
"The withering wit O'Neill wields about political posturing is maybe the most satisfying part of his poetry. . . . Throughout, O'Neill provides revelatory flashes of his own imperfect humanity in the role of a public servant."--Molly Boyle, Santa Fe Reporter
"O'Neill is deft at quick characterization through dialogue and physical description, and he easily backs in and out of a narrative to observe and offer moments of perspective. There's something hopeful about transforming a career's worth of these difficult meetings into poetry."--Jennifer Levin, Santa Fe New Mexican
"There are no heroes, and more importantly no villains in these poems. These poems are people, just like the poet himself. His memory of them is celebratory, as though this book of poems is about all the things he's learned . . . from them. All the advice he might have given them . . . meant for him. How his life and theirs aren't as different as you'd think, given half the chance."--Hakim Bellamy, Inaugural Poet Laureate of Albuquerque
"Come, enter the 'spectacular present' found in The Definition of Empty, and see the harsh reality of our youth involved in the juvenile justice system. . . . Culled from his years of service with the New Mexico Juvenile Parole Board, O'Neill demonstrates to us that 'these have become my kids, their destiny is my / diagnosis & their reflection is an endless succession / of teachings.'"--Katherine DiBella Seluja, author of Gather the Night: Poems
"Bill O'Neill's poems are graceful, fluid, and revealing. They are powerful and tender in the same breath, but this ain't no sit-around, clap-your-hands, feel-good poetry. The Definition of Empty is holistically intoxicating, laced with acts of forgiveness and compassion, so much of what is needed in the world right now."--Levi Romero, Inaugural Poet Laureate of New Mexico
Author's Note
Cody
Kimberly
Dagmar I
Dagmar II
Indian Hospital
Hitch-Hiking at 28
Dagmar III
Cruzita
A Quieter Heart
My Sabbatical
Castillo
Easter Weekend
Joey
The Governor's Son
Juan
Monday Morning
A Heart-to-Heart with Dad
Marcello
Barabbas
Marcos
Children's Psychiatric Hospital
Gerzon
Twelve Hours in the Car
Our Las Cruces Hearings
A Visitation from Sister Sue
Life Presents Difficult Choices
Suspended from Summer Prep School
Poetry at the Juvie
Mary Oliver's Limitations
Fourth of July in New Mexico
Thinking of Her
Kirsten
Isais
Snakes
Bartlett Mesa
Our Second Trip to Montana
After Work
The Untimely Death of a Pan-Handler
Hope House Denied: Unwelcome in Santa Fe
Montana, Again
Breakfast with My Patron
Policy Meetings
Central Avenue
The Fifties Are Back
Political Aspirations
Cowgirl Bar
Inauguration Night