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Multitudes of soft sounds make up the music of spring-a gentle stir of growth, the crisp rustle of daffodils against one another, the wind communing with young leaves;and the air is full of plaintive voices of small creatures
Mary Webb
Spring is a time of new beginnings, and our Poetry Pharmacists have been enjoying nature's wonders as a remedy to the world’s confusion. While some of our team are seeking more wintry climes and nature on a grand scale in Iceland over the Easter break, this newsletter comes from a Shropshire sunny garden filled with the busyness of birds and bees. The currency of nature is a precious one, often celebrated in song and poetry, and you can take a look at our beautiful selection of nature poems in our own Wild Remedy anthology,
This last week has been World Music Therapy Week, a time to raise our voices and ‘note’ the positive impacts of music as a therapy. Just like poetry, the therapeutic nature of music serves to connect us globally. As oral traditions, poetry and music are not really separate, and important in building communities and sharing stories, especially in developing countries. The rhythmical nature of poetry lends itself to song, with writers like Leonard Cohen and PJ Harvey starting their musical careers putting their words to melody. As Poetry Pharmacists, we celebrate the medicinal properties of words, rhythm, and sound, whether made by nature or by man. We enjoyed this article on The Music of Poetry, tempo, echo, and the makings of poetic tone by James Longenbach from the Poetry Foundation.
This week's subject line comes from the small poem 'Bind me - I can still sing -' and Emily Dickinson famously wrote her poems to the rhythms and forms of church hymns.
Our Prescriptions
...you pick out your own song from the uproar
line by line, and at last throw back
your head and sing it.
Denise Levertov
Our Be Original Poetry Pills are available online, and from our Bishop's Castle and London bookshops. For an added dose of courage and inspiration in challenging times, check out our Be Original First Aid Kit.
Women on Nature
This anthology gathers the voices of women from the fourteenth to the twenty-first centuries whose subject is the natural world in Britain, Ireland and the outlying islands of our archipelago. Women on Nature embraces alternative modes of seeing and recording that turn the genre on its head.
Orlam
Orlam is a coming-of-age tale, written in the Dorset dialect, and reveals P J Harvey as a gifted poet – whose formal skill, transforming eye and ear for the lyric line has produced a strange and moving poem.
Grow, Forage and Make
The perfect activity book for children and young people this Easter holidays, with over 30 fun, easy to follow and rewarding growing projects, foraging activities, experiments and arts and crafts activities.
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