AT A time of deepening structural inequalities in British life, the world of contemporary poetry publishing is increasingly remote and inaccessible. It is hard to be heard. But while the enemy’s ideas of culture are disfigured by money, snobbery, ignorance and dullness, the left still has the poets with something to say.

Here are four strong new anthologies that try to bear witness to the dangerous and absurd world of the 21st century.

A Fish Rots from the Head: A Poetic and Political Wake (Culture Matters, FREE e-book) is a flash-anthology addressing the “lawless folly” of partygate. Edited by Rip Bulkeley, these poems were written as the Downing Street comic opera began to unfold.