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talogCalmMoment.com 71poetry
Reading poetry is as
important as writing –
a great poem will inspire
you to reflect and grow.Poet and anthologist William Sieghart has
just launched a new book on the heels of his
best-selling anthology, The Poetry Pharmacy.
Poetry saved William’s sanity as an unhappy
child and it became the thing he shared
when he founded National Poetry Day
(nationalpoetryday.co.uk) on October 3rd, 25
years ago. He is also the founder of Forward
Prizes for Poetry (forwardartsfoundation.org), now in its 28th year.
His second self-help book, The Poetry Pharmacy Returns
(Particular Books, £12.99) is a collection from which to draw solace
and strength. It's designed around modern anxieties, with poems
prescribed to ease the mind. Themes include overthinking, pushy
parenting, anxieties and insecurities, misogyny and political apathy,
with poems ranging from William Wordsworth to Kate Tempest.
Listen to our podcast with William at calmmoment.com/podcastTune into our podcast with
The Poetry Pharmacistseven years after I had left him. Until that point, I just
had an amorphous dark shadow over that time. How
could I be the woman living in Bluebeard’s house?
“I wrote the poems to understand how, and the
poems began with my childhood and the shadowy
figure of my father. In this way the writing process
was extremely therapeutic for me, though I didn’t
actually think that at the time. I didn’t force myself to
write anything to help me organise things inside my
head, but that’s what happened – I claimed my life.”
As a result, many people have connected with
Helen’s poetry – and her poems have enabled others
to write and sometimes share their own experiences
of domestic abuse too.
So what is it that makes poetry so therapeutic?
“Poetry’s therapeutic value is linked to its
limitlessness,” says Scherezade Sanchita Siobhan
(thetalkingcompass.com), clinical psychologist and
published poet. “You can imagine yourself in newer,
different places and thereby you can be transported
away from the current clutch of worries or anxieties.
You can create a collage for a world you wish to