An Act of Courage is Sean O'Neill's seventh collection of poetry. Set primarily against the background of a Midwestern American industrial city, its streets and strip malls, factories and parks, interwoven with soliloquies evoked by portraits, photos and memories, the poems explore courage in the face of weariness; of loss of domestic and spiritual illusions; of the frightening approach of personal intimacy; above all, in the face of the transience of life and the prospect of a final reckoning. These poems are, by turns, haunting, consoling, bracing and surprising.