Synopses & Reviews
Four individuals are haunted in different ways by what they can't forget in this collection where the personal and cultural past is keenly felt. Built around two long, dramatic monologues spoken by English writers, these poems trace the complexities between politics, aesthetics, and desire. These diverse poems move from the barbaric civility of the classical world to the perplexed certainties of the present, often struggling to come to terms with the formalities of love and the intimacies of aggression.
Review
"I cannot praise [Gregory Woods' poems] too highly . . . At last, a good book of good poetry which takes as its subject a frank and unsentimental homosexuality . . . What an enviable talent Gregory Woods has. I recommend this book to everybody." Thom Gunn
Review
"The poems of Gregory Woods fall into a Latinate tradition of poetry with a subject matter which might be described as pagan . . . The subject matter may seem raw but in economy and beauty of expression they have a kind of purity . . . I have read Gregory Woods' poems with real excitement." Sir Stephen Spender
About the Author
Gregory Woods is a professor of gay and lesbian studies at Nottingham Trent University. He is the author of a number of critical books and poetry collections, including The District Commissioner's Dream, May I Say Nothing, and We Have the Melon.