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The final session is a collective celebration. We’ll share the fruits of our new habits, and marvel at just how many different ways our group have found to bring more poetry into both our own and others’ daily lives. 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).
There’s an exercise I do right at the beginning. I get the group to introduce themselves to each other by writing a couple of paragraphs – without using the letter E.
The Emergency Poet
What intrigues me about Philip James Bailey’s wonderful poem We Live in Deeds is its call to action. There’s something intensely motivating about the idea that we might fit a whole life’s worth of living into an hour, if only we had the courage. So often we are paralysed by our fears, concerns, worries and ‘what-ifs’, and we forget to dread the ‘what-if-I-don’ts’ instead. The Poetry Pharmacy is also a new centre in the Midlands for poetry and creative writing; The Distillery space upstairs is host to regular reading and writing workshops, as well as arts for health workshops, book launches and open mic’s, with an emphasis on good mental health and well-being. Our third session will be about finding magic in the mundane and fortifying ourselves with small moments of beauty: noticing the sunlight as it falls across a wooden floor or the sound of water as it's poured into a teapot, appreciating the small kindnesses in a waiting room or tiny epiphanies that can happen in the supermarket. 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. Pat Edwards, who works at the Poetry Pharmacy and also runs the Welshpool Poetry Festival, says the experience is “just as beneficial, if not more so, than any drug”. She became more involved with poetry, even writing her own, after a serious illness six years ago.
Poems of the Decade brings together more than one hundred poems from the many thousands submitted to the Forward Prizes for Poetry in the first decade of the 21st century.
What it’s like to be prescribed a poem
There’s a skill to creating spaces where people feel really comfortable, and it’s one Alma seems to possess in abundance. You see photographs of her shop and you just want to be in there, reading a good book in the cosy café while sipping a nice cup of Tea (S Eliot) along with a piece of Philip Parkin cake. I realised that we were on to something. Suffering is the access point to poetry for a lot of people: that’s when they open their ears, hearts and minds. Being there with the right words for someone in that moment – when something’s happened, when they’re in need – is a great comfort, and sometimes creates a love of poetry that can last a lifetime. 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. The poem speaks tenderly of love between men and women, men and men, and women and women. At the time there were a lot of tears and much hugging, and the man is now in a relationship. 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.
Absolutely! I’m teaching them to stop taking themselves so seriously. Playfulness is really important, I think. What motivates you to get up in the morning? I think the most common ‘ailments’ that I’ve been asked to prescribe for are problems to do with our modern world and the problems of finding a more balanced life; of doing too much, unhappy at work, work-related stress. It’s a kind of pastiche of a therapy session. It’s very theatrical, and hopefully it’s not intimidating. People seem quite happy to come and have a go. It’s what I did with people with dementia. I sat with them and listened, really carefully. And I wrote down their words.
Prized Poems: Twenty-five Years of the Forward Prizes | Forward Arts Foundation". www.forwardartsfoundation.org. Archived from the original on 27 December 2016. 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. Some of the poems that spoke most to me at the moment of reading – preferences might vary with the mood: I think there’s a need in all of us to express ourselves, connect intimately in a spiritual, philosophical or thoughtful way with your own life or with the world. And words are the way I found to do that. Tell me about your consultations. Very few people feel really heardthese days. It seems that’s the great gift you’re giving. He was left standing with blood on his hands and a poem in his head – Philip Larkin’s ‘ Ambulances’,which talks about the moment when one sees an ambulance on the street:
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.
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? This anthology of anthologies draws on the ten Forward Books of Poetry published to accompany the prizes between 2001 and 2010. Here, instead of sleeping pills and multivitamins, customers will be offered prescriptions of Derek Walcott and Elizabeth Bishop" - Alison Flood, The Guardian. 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. After a day of exploring, you can return to your cosy accommodation and relax in front of the fire. Or, if you`re feeling more adventurous, you can head out to one of the many pubs and restaurants in Shropshire to enjoy a delicious meal and a drink.
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