Poem of the week: Storm in Brooklyn Subway by Menna Elfyn
A collective dash for shelter in the city takes on a spiritual, near-religious power
Forward prize names poets Vidyan Ravinthiran and Karen Solie its first joint winners
Judge of prestigious award says two best collection winners ‘address the urgent challenges of our time’
Poem of the week: On the Death of Dr Robert Levet by Samuel Johnson
An elegy to the poet’s personal physician is full of vivid detail delivered with infectious warmth
Maurice Rutherford obituary
Poet who wrote with originality, warmth and mischief about his home city of Hull, after turning to writing later in life
Joelle Taylor: ‘I picked up The Weirdstone of Brisingamen in a swoon of nine-year-old despair’
The poet and playwright on queer classics, cinematic TS Eliot and the comforts of a ghost story
‘The jobless should lead the attack’: a radical Jamaican journalist in 1920s London
The long read: Economic insecurity, race riots, incendiary media … Claude McKay was one of the few Black journalists covering a turbulent period that sounds all too familiar to us today
‘After the reading, the poets hold each other’: what happens when Ukraine’s largest literary festival comes under Russian attack
Fiona Benson was invited to Lviv’s BookForum by Ukrainian poet-soldier Artur Dron’. She recounts falling in love with the city and its thriving literary culture, before an air raid siren sounds
Poem of the week: My Mother by Claude McKay
Two sonnets absorb with calm clarity a boy’s anguish at his mother’s loss
‘We’ve all done stupid things but we’re all capable of redemption’: spoken-word artist Joshua Idehen on fighting hate with hope
His poem Mum Does the Washing went viral – but he started out parroting conservative talking points online. Now the British-Nigerian vocalist preaches a message of radical positivity
The Poems of Seamus Heaney review – collected works reveal his colossal achievement
The complete works, including previously unpublished poems and expert notes, are brought together in one volume for the first time
‘Great range and power’: TS Eliot poetry prize shortlist announced
Ten poets, including Tom Paulin and Sarah Howe, appear on the shortlist for the £25,000 award, which judges described as offering ‘something for everyone’
Poem of the week: To a Lady that Desired I Would Love Her by Thomas Carew
The 17th-century ‘server at table’ to Charles I puts a wry spin on courtly wooing
‘My poems are part of my flesh’: Palestinian poet Batool Abu Akleen on life in Gaza
At just 20, the poet is one of the most vivid witnesses to the conflict. She talks about dreams of Oxford, the deaths of friends and how tragedy has shaped the person she has become
The best recent poetry – review roundup
So Far So Good by Ursula K Le Guin; Thrums by Thomas A Clark; Sculling by Sophie Dumont; Magadh by Shrikant Verma
Brian Patten obituary
One of the Liverpool poets, along with Roger McGough and Adrian Henri, who was a perceptive writer on love