The best recent poetry – review roundup
Bright Fear by Mary Jean Chan; So to Speak by Terrance Hayes; A ‘Working Life’ by Eileen Myles; Devotions by Mary Oliver; We Play Here by Dawn Watson
Gavin Selerie obituary
Other lives: Lecturer and writer whose poetry mixed verse with original academic analysis
From Our Own Fire by William Letford review – in a world of his own
A family learn how to live in dystopia in the Scottish poet’s gripping and imaginative mix of cosmic poetry and earthy prose
Poem of the week: Platonic Love by Abraham Cowley
A witty and engaging dance of ideas about the joining of bodies and the mixing of souls
Poem of the week: Pilgrim Bell by Kaveh Akbar
Answers soon become questions of faith as this full-stop-studded poem refuses to mean what the hasty reader might think
Kit by Megan Barker review – roads not taken
This bittersweet debut fuses prose and poetry as a narrator struggles with a troubled friend and her own life of lost freedoms
JO Morgan: ‘I think I do books that may sound strange’
The prize-winning poet and novelist on writing and book binding, his wariness of new technology and why literature is the ultimate immersive experience
Digested week: jingoism in odd places on a visit to post-Brexit Blighty
Supermarket goods festooned with union jacks; ‘made in Britain’ labels everywhere. How my former homeland has changed
John Betjeman dismissed as ‘songster of tennis lawns’ in 1967 search for poet laureate
Records from the National Archive reveal the cut-throat world of British poetry, and the politics behind selecting candidates
Sue Dymoke obituary
Other lives: Teacher, academic and poet
Charlie Watts’ book collection to be sold at Christie’s
Rare books owned by the Rolling Stones drummer – including first editions of The Great Gatsby and The Hound of the Baskervilles – will be auctioned this autumn
Poem of the week: Silence by Marianne Moore
A man who might seem rather snooty gradually reveals himself as cultured and restrained, rather like Moore’s art
The Guardian view on spoken word poets: powerful voices that are needed today
Editorial: Traditionally looked down on by the poetry establishment, those specialising in performance deserve their new chance to shine
Crisis Actor by Declan Ryan review – all the best punchlines
Pugilism and personal reflections trade blows in a clear-sighted and adroit debut collection
Poem of the week: Dear Bird by Howard Altmann
A dead bird stumbled upon during a walk leads the poet on an inward journey confronting historical and biological cycles and the act of writing itself