The day you change, like any other day,
is sunny or is rainy. You get up
and put your new clothes on, and brush your hair
and put that on as well. Your breasts are sore–
they still have stitches. And you drink your tea
like any other day, the day you change.

From “23”

Dialectic of the Flesh brings together Roz Kaveney’s poems on queer and trans experience, poems which run the gamut of emotions, from exuberant and witty celebrations of the joy of sex to elegies of murdered friends, written for Transgender Day of Remembrance. This collection showcases Kaveney’s versatility, including both her carefully-constructed formal work as well as free verse poems, and also features two ambitious long poems: a commemoration of Stonewall and a poem addressed to her younger male self from her adult female present.

Roz Kaveney is a middle-aged trans woman living and working in London as a writer, critic, and activist. A regular contributor to The Independent, The Guardian and the Times Literary Supplement, she is the author of many books on popular culture, and recently published her first novel, Rituals. She helped found Feminists Against Censorship and is a past deputy Chair of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties). She was also active in the Oxford Union debating society, the Gay Liberation Front, and Chain Reaction, a dyke SM disco she helped run in the 80s. “I was reared Catholic but got over it, was born male but got over it, stopped sleeping with boys about the time I stopped being one and am much happier than I was when I was younger.”

DIALECTIC OF THE FLESH
by Roz Kaveney
Body Language 08
ISBN-13: 978-1-938334-00-9
ISBN-10: 1938334000
Poetry/Transgender/Queer Studies
64 pages/perfect bound