I
Introductory Anecdotes
An Extraordinary Coincidence
Parentage and Birth
Our Humble Mansion
The Farce of the Upholsterer
Caution Was His Prominent Trait
Originally a Shoemaker
Committee of Visitors to the Lunatic Asylum
To Travel in Foreign Countries
To Soothe Asperities
The Agitation Was Universal
Consciousness of Touch
Humiliation and Disaster
Most Likely to Survive
Ghostliness
You Say Suicide
Whispers in Church
Too Deep for Words
Flapping Tongue
Hoodwinked by Reason
II
How Things Work
All Equally to Blame
A Magic Bell-Tower
At the Sight of a Lady
The Excesses of the Night
A Short Spell of Sleep
Carrying My Suitcase
I Borrowed an Axe
A Heartfelt Request
A Few Songs
Warriors Drinking
Marvellous Profusion
The Brisk Cherub
The Sun Will Scorch Them
My Own Frailty
We Were Not Close
Absorbed in Running
Tumultuous and Ruinous
A Charismatic Stranger
Scandalous Goings-on
More of the Same
She Bit My Ear
The Love of the Wasp
What a Cunning Swindler
A Truncated Sentence
Louisa, Louisa!
My Father Was a Horse-Dealer
III
Some Terrible Things
The Colourful Scarf
A Sobbing Whisper
More Serious Still
His Lip Had Swollen
250,000 People
Escapade
Confidential Scraps of Writing
Be Kind to Your Tumour
The Sweet Fable of Peace
Dreambusters
What You Live For
All the Instruments
Clockwork
Impassive Serenity
Time Is Running Out
The News Affected Him Deeply
The Rudest Hovels
The Sun Is So Important
Rituals and Ceremonies
Dead March
A New Fear
His Masterpiece
______________
Gregory Woods is the author of six poetry collections from Carcanet Press, the latest being Records of an Incitement to Silence (2021). His booklet, They Exchange Glances: Gay Modernist Poems in Translation (2024), is with Hercules Editions. His main books on gay cultural history are with Yale University Press.
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