[UPDATE] Poetry, Good For What Ails you . . .

In August I posted on William Sieghart and his anthology, Winning Words, Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life. I spoke of his poetry pharmacy and the prescriptions he dispensed.

Well . . . It seems the doctor is still practicing.

For National Poetry Day (UK), The Guardian had people write in (online) with their issues, and Seighart gave his prescriptions.



Here are a few:


DanHolloway; Man whose heart belongs to the neon and smog and broken streetlamps of the city finds himself stuck in the unending green of the country and needs a fix of home.

Dr Sieghart's remedy:

I feel for you, stuck in the miserable and boring countryside. I prescribe Sheenagh Pugh's What is This Road? It reminds you that your story never ends, that familiar and unfamiliar landscapes can always deliver new chapters. Keep in mind that the journey is irresistible.

What if this road, that has held no surprises
these many years, decided not to go
home after all…

Who wants to know
a story's end, or where a road will go?



Fixitgirl: I'm writing the dissertation for my Masters (on Foucault) while working a full-time job and it's driving me mad. Please prescribe me a poem to soothe me.

Dr Sieghart's remedy:
You need to pause. And breathe...deeply.
Try Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughts
And stare as long as sheep or cows.



DavidBench: I'm really tired this week and it's affecting my work. I just want to sleep...

Dr Sieghart's remedy:
Wendell Berry's The Peace of Wild Things will transport you to a tranquil place. Recite it slowly before bed.

I go and lie down where the wood drake
Rests in his beauty on the water…
I come into the presence of still water…
You can find it on page 168 of the Winning Words anthology.

Poetry, Good For What Ails you . . .

I ran across an intriguing article the other day, called Poetry Changed the World, by Elaine Scarry. In the article, Scarry connects the development of civilization to the ability of literature to take us out of ourselves to "see something bigger, a different perspective," tracing the development of poetry and concurrent societal evolution, and speaking of poetry's "invitation to empathy, its reliance on deliberative thought, and its beauty."

I then found the article, A poem a day by William Sieghart, about a talk he gave promoting a new anthology, Winning Words, Inspiring Poems for Everyday Life. Actually, it was about what he did after the talk to illustrate his point. The short article is quite interesting. Here are a few excerpts:

... I’ve been battling with the challenge of making poetry appear more relevant to people in their everyday lives. Battling because there is no doubt that most people find poetry intimidating. ... 

Where have I heard that before?

... Following the talk I sat in the book tent with a couch beside me, offering to listen to people’s problems for ten minutes at a time and then prescribe them with the appropriate poem or poems for them to take away and inwardly digest or commit to memory as an alternative to a cocktail of pills or any other form of therapy currently in vogue.

... Nearly forty people had availed themselves of my poetry pharmacy. About a quarter of them had burst into tears with a complete stranger either in recounting their troubles or when I managed to prescribe appropriately and they found a poetic complicity for their troubles and at last felt understood.

... Suffice it to say it saddened me how, in a world of so much communication, supposedly made even easier by developments in technology, people seem as lonely and unsupported as ever.  But and it’s a big but, the right poem at the right time could provide immeasurable sustenance. The emails I have had since prove it.

... Poetry in the right time and place can be a far better mantra for that tricky business of living than many more expensive or fashionable alternatives. I urge you to spread the word and look out for my future poetry surgeries. The Doctor is in.

  

So see . . .

as we embrace poetry, allow it to enrich our own lives, and share our insights with others, we are also bringing badly needed medicine to an ailing world.