The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul

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Persian or Iranian people say: “We don’t need a pharmacy book, we have Hafez.” Written 700 years ago, their poems have depth, range and contemporary relevance. Poetry is crucial for continuity. We live in a world of terrifying immediacy and uncertainty – Donald Trump has just said he’d be happy to take out North Korea. It is hard to protect our fragile psyches from assault. There are no easy fixes, but that is why we turn to poetry. Pursuing truths is worthwhile: the cupboard you thought was full of snakes turns out to be full of dust. While poetry had been his friend from a young age, one particular experience in his mid-twenties proved a light-bulb moment for its worth – a man was hit by a car in front of him on the Cromwell Road in London. He helped save the man’s life and watched him being taken away in an ambulance. Our accommodation is more than just a place to sleep - it`s an experience. From the stunning views to the thoughtful amenities, you`ll feel right at home as soon as you arrive. The Forwards are among the world’s most coveted poetry honours. They have been awarded annually since 1992 for the Best Collection, Best First Collection and Best Single Poem published in Britain and Ireland, and the roster of winning, shortlisted and highly commended poets regularly juxtaposes familiar canonical names with fresh voices. These annual anthologies of the poems in the running for the Forward Prizes remain the best way of encountering the richness that new poetry has to offer.’ Daily Telegraph Keep up to date

I make it fun and easy, usually, with exercises which are slightly silly. Each session we do something that’s frivolous, and I might give a prize or something. Sieghart chaired and authored An Independent Review of E-Lending in Public Libraries in England [8] published by Department Culture, Media and Sport, 2013 and was subsequently jointly commissioned by Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, DCMS, and Brandon Lewis, Minister for Communities & Local Government, DCLG, to consider and report on Public Library services in England. The "Independent Library report for England" [9] was published by DCMS in December 2014. In September 2015, Sieghart was appointed Chairman of Somerset House Trust. The Forward Book of Poetry 2020 brings together a selection of the best poetry published in the British Isles over the last year, including the winners of the 2019 Forward Prizes – and a foreword by jury chair Shahidha Bari. Rhiannon Hooson is a Welsh poet, author and editor. She has won major awards for her work, including an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors, and her first book, The Other City , was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year award. In the last few years, she has been a Literature Wales bursary recipient, a Hay Festival Writer at Work, poetry editor of Creative Countryside magazine, and the judge of the PENfro festival poetry competition. She has a PhD in poetry from the University of Lancaster, and spent time living and working in Cumbria and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, before settling in the Welsh marches. Goliat , her second collection, is out now from Seren.Because life’s been a bit stressful, I’ve been re-reading old favourites. There’s a 1922 book called The Worst Journey In The World, by Apsley Cherry-Garrard. He was one of the men on Scott’s [doomed] Polar expedition.I’ve got this weird interest in Polar exploration! I just find it really comforting when things are awful for other people, reading how they overcome them. What book would you recommend to inspire creativity? In her forties, while recovering from an abusive relationship, she went to university to study creative writing, expressing her pain in poems that were eventually published in a collection, Dirty Laundry. There is something about the short encounter and power of poetry that enables people to go straight to the heart of the matter, and fifty per-cent of those who come for a prescription end up using his box of tissues.

Some of the poems that spoke most to me at the moment of reading – preferences might vary with the mood: In this programme, William meets Rebecca who has been experiencing a loss of control in her life due to serious illness, Sarah whose 18 year old triplets are about to the fly the nest and head off to university, and Suzanne who is coming to terms with her role as carer within her family. The book is divided into five sections: Mental and Emotional Well-Being, Motivations, Self-Image and Self-Acceptance, The World and Other People, and Love and Loss. The divisions, for me, were a distraction but not a reduction since you can read them once as I did, many times or not at all. Not so with the seventy-four conditions, each of which is printed above its poem. It was Ambulances by Philip Larkin. I had this extraordinary experience. I was about to cross the road when someone stepped in front of me and was hit by a car. I found myself pumping his heart, giving him the kiss of life – amazingly, his heart started beating again. An ambulance came, the police took my statement.When I first started listening to The Poetry Pharmacy, I was blown away, and wanted to open my Goodreads profile just to rate it before I had even finished it. I absolutely loved it! In a way, I am glad I didn’t. To capture the true depth of something, sometimes we need to immerse ourselves in it fully, get the whole picture and not just that which appeals to us most. Having said that, it was still amazing, albeit less applicable to me towards the end. If we feared boredom, or being boring, more than we feared the consequences of bold action, I can barely conceive of the marvellous things we’d create and the spectacular lives we could lead. There is such huge potential within us, and within the world itself, and yet for some reason we choose to live lives of constraint and repetition. Imagine if we didn’t.