What Can Be Proven

A strange and compelling world is revealed in What Can Be Proven, and yet reading it is like returning to familiar things that we have forgotten. O'Flynn has an elevated poetic voice, but also the capacity for revealing familiar things in a strange new light. From the first poem, we are introduced to poetry with an almost physical presence because each word leaves a weight like the 'imprint of the iron ladder hard against shins'. The book is full of contrasts, there is poetry of great sadness and poetry with great humour. This is what I like about O'Flynn's work, though it makes it a difficult book to write about. If he says one thing, then something else applies too. It is not like Heaney or Muldoon. It is Australian, informed by many voices. - Tony Curtis, winner, Irish National Poetry Prize