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

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In the introduction to his new book The Poetry Pharmacy, William Sieghart quotes the British playwright Alan Bennett. “The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – which you had thought special and particular to you. Now here it is, set down by someone else, a person you have never met, someone even who is long dead. And it is as if a hand has come out and taken yours.” Having finished this collection, it was a great pleasure to listen to the touching testimony of William Sieghart about the project and the power of poetry, in which his love for the Persian poet Hafez shines through. I must have listened, over the past few years, to nearly a thousand people's problems...Seeing the difference the right poem can make written on that many faces has given me confidence in poetry's power to change lives. we need something that can stand in the place of the liturgies that many of us, in this secular society, have increasingly left behind.” Sieghart explains in his introduction how the idea of his Poetry Pharmacy arose and developed, following with a useful short note on "how to read poetry". He then introduces each poem under a heading for the "conditions" for which he would describe them, and how a particular reading might shed light upon the causes of, or alleviate the feelings of, distress.

Here, instead of sleeping pills and multivitamins, customers will be offered prescriptions of Derek Walcott and Elizabeth Bishop" - Alison Flood, The Guardian. or in a waiting-room a face reminds you that the colour supplements have lied and some have pleasure and some pay the price. The second volume in William Sieghart’s poetry pharmacy project follows the same concept and premise as volume one - The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Mind, Heart and Soul - in which William Sieghart administers a “prescription” in the shape of poem to those affected by what he classifies as “conditions” – as there are romantic dilemma’s, overthinking, second-guessing, letting go, fear (of change, of mortality, of loss), feeling lost, bombardment by minutiae, being browbeaten, feeling isolated, neediness shyness (would it be wrong to suggest this collection might particularly appeal to those among us which are of the more introverted inclination?).

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Dressed in a white coat and stethoscope, Alma says she was invited to appear as the Emergency Poet at “schools, hospitals and festivals all over the place, but I’m a middle-aged woman and I’m getting a bit old for driving around”. She first noticed the shop on Bishop’s Castle High Street two years ago. “It’s got all the original shelves, drawers, the oak counter; it’s beautiful and I thought: ‘Wow, that would make a fantastic poetry pharmacy!’ Two years later, we’ve done it and got a mortgage,” she says. I think probably more than any other art it speaks directly as though from one person to another,” says Alma, who published her own first collection, Dirty Laundry, last year. “It’s intimate and it’s empathetic. It can be a prayer or a curse, or something just to hang on to.” Suffering is the access point to poetry for a lot of people: that’s when they open their ears, hearts and minds.” This anthology of anthologies draws on the ten Forward Books of Poetry published to accompany the prizes between 2001 and 2010.

From weathering sorrow and sudden loss, to dealing with environmental despair and burnout, this new selection speaks directly to a society in urgent need of comfort and compassion. Whether you're searching for guidance, hope, or simply a moment of beauty, The Poetry Pharmacy Forever is here to provide solace, joy and inspiration, one verse at a time. The book is delightful; it rightly resituates poetry in relation to its biggest and most serious task: helping us to live and die well' Alain de Botton Read more Details Thank you very much Mwana for adding to the pleasure of this collection by pointing me to this wonderful Some of the poems that spoke most to me at the moment of reading – preferences might vary with the mood: Sieghart, a former chairman of the Arts Council Lottery Panel, founded the Forward Prizes for Poetry in 1992 and National Poetry Day itself in 1994. He’s active in supporting public libraries and charities, but he’s also dedicated to giving personal poetry prescriptions, and has taken his Poetry Pharmacy idea to literary festivals, newspapers and radio programs.

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Alma is reluctant to hand out general poetry prescriptions on demand, as she says each “patient” needs a proper consultation before being given a poem, but she will advise that for a broken heart, Derek Walcott’s Love After Love is “always a good one, about falling in love with your own interesting life”. Grief “depends on what the loss is, and that’s complicated”, but she would probably reach for “something about letting go”, possibly the Elizabeth Bishop poem, One Art. Sometimes only a poem will do. These poetic prescriptions and wise words of advice offer comfort, delight and inspiration for all; a space for reflection, and that precious realisation – I’m not the only one who feels like this. Blimey! The biggest is getting married. No one tells you when you’re young that it’s the most important decision you will make in your life. The sequel to The Poetry Pharmacy.) Sieghart does poetry-specific bibliotherapy, believing that it has the ability to touch emotionally hurting people and perhaps fill the role once played by religion:

The essential thing when thinking about a life cut short is not to imagine it as an oak sapling, cut before its prime. Those we lost were never meant to be grand old trees at all. Instead, they lived their days bright and treasured; they bloomed before they fell, and that was enough. Their lives were beautiful, and whole, and perfect, like a flower on a summer’s day. They are gone now, but their memory remains with us, a source of light. It will never be extinguished. Sieghart has chosen a great variety of poems in terms of time period and register. Rumi and Hafez share space with Wendy Cope and Maya Angelou. Of the 56 poems, I’d estimate that at least three-quarters are from the twentieth century or later. At times the selections are fairly obvious or clichéd (especially “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep” for Bereavement), and the choice of short poems or excerpts seems to pander to short attention spans. So populist is the approach that Sieghart warns Keats is the hardest of all. I also thought there should have been a strict one poem per poet rule; several get two or even three entries.And there are some superb poems, for me some new ones, old friends and a few regulars. There's a lovely variety of poetry modern and traditional, which includes works by Phillip Larkin, Maya Angelou, Rumi, William Carlos Williams, Whitman, Carver, cummings, Millay, Mary Oliver, Berry, Keats and Cope. Poetry is soul food so of course some will taste better on your tongue than others. William Sieghart uses the power of poetry to heal our wounds, to quieten our minds, to alleviate our pain and to diminish our woes. He has collected poems from well known poets such as the 13th and 14th Century Rumi and Hafez, to famous poems such as Maya Angelou’s “And Still, I Rise” and “If” by Rudyard Kipling, to ‘mere’ (but not so mere) two liners, on to anthems and prose to come up with a remedy for what he considers the main psychological ailments suffered by the masses. There is something in this pharmacy that will appeal to every one of us, of that, I am sure. He considers people of all ages, which is why, not every poem will appeal to one person alone. Also the thought that only through practise we can learn the art of losing gracefully touched a chord with me, as expressed so wittily in the elegant verse of Elisabeth Bishop: The project flourished and grew. The full history is in the book (which in the U.S. in e-book form is entitled The Poetry Remedy). 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.

Sometimes only a poem will do. These poetic prescriptions and wise words of advice offer comfort, delight and inspiration for all; a space for reflection, and that precious realization - I'm not the only one who feels like this. A matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss’ Stephen Fry on William Sieghart’s bestselling Poetry Pharmacy. 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 dateA matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss' - Stephen Fry on William Sieghart's bestselling Poetry Pharmacy I liked the concept and premise of this variegated anthology a lot. A fine poem a day keeps the doctor away. As a believer in the power and the necessity of poetry, I cheer William Sieghart’s laudable mission to listen to people’s problems and administer a “prescription” in the shape of poem to those affected by what he classifies as “conditions” (mostly ‘spiritual ailments’ as there are, addiction, despair at the absurdity of the world, aging, the emotions connected to love, regret, self-recrimination, heartbreak, depression, isolation, various forms of fear, grief, lethargy, illness, worrying and many, many more - the array of human suffering is wide). As a devotee and promotor of poetry, having founded National Poetry Day in Britain, he understood that suffering is the access point to poetry for a lot of people and that such offers a momentum to introduce people to poetry as they are ready to open their ears, hearts and minds – and find poetry as a balm, a comfort, a smile, a succour, or simply a help to embrace one’s feelings in certain situations (infatuation, grief) The poems are presented in five categories, touching on mental and emotional wellbeing, motivations, self-image and self-acceptance, the world and other people, love and loss. For example, Elizabeth Bishop's One Art is placed in Self-Image and Self-Acceptance. In this heart it mainly lives in Love and Loss, though it spends time in Mental and Emotional Well-Being as well as three others. Of the seventy-four conditions, the one for which he prescribes it is Letting Go. It makes sense but so do dozens of others. But it had to be done somehow, there are no prescriptions without conditions. So I learned to stop trying to rewrite what isn't mine: to Let Go. Because poetry.