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""Finis coronat opus. Gavin Selerie's Late Poems mark a fitting end to his poetic career. The opening section, 'Pandemic Poems', approach that apocalyptic period of anxiety, separation and death, of political incompetence and spivy corruption, of mediated experiences and the ragged tags of public discourse, with the resources of a lifetime's reading and writing. This is manifested in the eloquence of the Audenesque 'Biocalypse'; the verve and energy of 'November 1918', which approaches the influenza epidemic of that year through Yeats and his new bride; and, best of all, in 'Logodaedale', Gavin's poignant response to the first of Ovid's poems in exile. The second section, 'A Cricklewood Sequence', celebrates other inhabitants of the area where he made his home (from Leon Kossoff to Ken Livingstone via the Kinks) with Gavin's characteristic formal inventiveness. The final section, 'Political Poems & Tribute Poems', commemorates an important part of Gavin's practice and also fittingly summons up some of the poets, musicians and academics who meant so much to him."" -Robert Hampson

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9781848619517

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Gavin Selerie (1947-2023) was born in London. He taught at Birkbeck, University of London for many years. His books include Azimuth (1984), Roxy (1996) and Le Fanu's Ghost (2006) - all long sequences with linked units. Music's Duel: New and Selected Poems 1972-2008 was published by Shearsman Books in 2009. This includes a good deal of fugitive material, besides more widely available work. Selerie collaborated with the writer and artist Alan Halsey, notably in the book Days of '49 (1999). His work appeared in anthologies such as The New British Poetry (1988), Other: British & Irish Poetry since 1970 (1999) and The Reality Street Book of Sonnets (2008). His poems generally involved a layering of voices through history and landscape. He wrote extensively about London, reflecting his roots (an Italian family in Soho and an English family of wood-carvers). He has been a core member of the London poetry scene since the 1970s. His final large-scale publications were Hariot Double, which juxtaposes renaissance and modern elements, and Collected Sonnets (Shearsman Books, 2019).

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