Late Poems

“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