The publication in 1972 of Invisibility Is the Art of Survival, the author's own selection of poems from earlier books brought out in England, introduced Edwin Brock to American readers. This new collection, The Portraits & The Poses, will further the acquaintance with a fresh and forceful voice, one which David Ignatow has called "the best in English contemporary poetry." These are highly personal poems: the "poses," the postures and bafflements of everyday life as Brock sees it; the "portraits," pithy vignettes of everyday people and their relationships as he knows them. Yet what is personal to the poet is made highly accessible by his art, and by his particular qualities of profound earthiness, honesty, humor, and concern.

Edwin Brock (1927-1997) was a British poet. Born into a working class London family, Brock discovered poetry when he picked up an anthology during idle time while serving in World War II. He taught himself how to write verse and spent many years writing while working as a policeman and, later, a successful advertising copywriter. Two of his best-known poems are Five Ways to Kill a Man and Song of the Battery Hen.