Poets don't set out to lie, and now is the time for truth. (I think that old avant-garde was really an arrière-garde, withdrawing into reactionary esotericism in the face of the advance of literacy). I want poems which don't distance themselves, hold aloof, poems about living against the background of collapsing democracy, religion, social life and the corporate greed which is ruining our world...Poems that matter! I try to write them if I can.
Selwyn suffered a cardiac arrest at home on the evening of June 26. He was pronounced dead on June 30 and is sorely missed by his family. The last week before his heart attack was spent with his wife, his daughter and both his sons. His last collection of poetry, completed shortly before his death, is available here.
There is also a recent interview with Selwyn on www.poetrykit.org.