The Place of Bo

This poem functions almost as a riddle, with a very clever reveal in the final line. The episodic, almost strobe-lighting effect of the short, intense stanzas reminds me of writers like Charles Bukowski, and even the Dadaists and others who responded to the meaninglessness of the World Wars by eschewing realism altogether and developing surrealist and abstract styles in art and writing.

Aaron O’Dea is a poet from the Rhyme Rag community in Kilkenny. He’s been performing poetry for a year, and combines poetry with his songwriting project where he writes one song every week. He is also a film-maker, actor, musician and magician. His knowledge of the arts comes to the fore when performing his poetry, often combining political issues and comedy with personal and spiritual endeavours. His poetry was aired this Christmas Day with RTE Radio One.
A note on the poem:
When you cross out the “of” in “Place of Bo” and put in the “see” it spells “Place see bo” which when pronounced is placebo.
The “Gremlin” or the tormented one searches for a Place with no pain/The Place of Bo. This is a placebo and is unattainable in the same way that you can’t have positive without negative, darkness without light or inside without outside. This childish need to find such a utopian place comes from the mindset of a flawed education system and being riddled with pain and anxieties for a long time. It is only when we escape that system that we realise that the REAL heaven is right here.