He has a wonderful way of using seemingly unrelated descriptor words to set a mood and paint an allegory. Adjectives pulling meaning out of simple objects or scenes. Like most good poetry I have to read each twice, once to familiarize myself to the verse, and once to unravel it's meaning. But, also like most good poetry, I don't have to puzzle over it beyond that.
A line that is beautiful and a great example:
"Once songs of apples filled the farmhouse; but the children became photographs,"
That poem is about a house that had a family and life in it and how it changed with the the passage of time.
Some of O'Dea's poems struck a chord with me and I understood the story he was telling. Others remain a mystery and i wonder if it is not being Irish that makes it difficult for me to grasp the imagery.