Signs Round a Dead Body

signs round a dead bodyDeryn Rees-Jones’s new collection won a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. It explores relationships with men and the wider cultural constructions of masculinity In poems such as “Making Out, ” and “From His Coy Mistress, ” the dilemmas of modern women are confronted with dark humor and sharp technique in a series of blistering narratives, while intensely realized love poems chart the passionate initiation of new relationships. Love, in all its permutations, suffuses the book, and sensuous details abound. Rees-Jones’s first collection, The Memory Tray, was shortlisted for a Forward Poetry Prize for Best First Collection.