29/07/25- the answer is often immediate and clear

In this week's newsletter we're celebrating World Friendship Day. Established by The United Nations in 2011, the 30 July every year is a day to mark the role that friendship plays in promoting peace, bridging communities, and fostering mutual understanding between peoples and cultures.
Friendship gives shape to feelings of belonging; offers refuge in the chaos of life, and affirms that we are not, in fact, alone in our ways of thinking, feeling, or being. Friendships of depth and meaning expand our perspective, stretch our capacity for empathy, and allow us to be ''therapeutically daft'' with one another; to be playful or silly without fear of judgment. 

''And let your best be for your friend.
 If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.''

From On Friendship from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran and you can read the whole poem here.

One of the most powerful poems on the lasting value of friendship is found in My Dead Friends by Marie Howe and it reminds us that the friends we’ve loved and lost can remain with us, in their wisdom, humour, and words of encouragement. My Dead Friends speaks to the ways our relationships continue to shape us, offering guidance even after death, and reminding us always to choose joy, and connection. It’s a poem about absence and presence and the deep, abiding comfort of knowing that love endures. You can read a few lines of it below or the full poem here.

''I have begun,
when I’m weary and can’t decide an answer to a bewildering question

to ask my dead friends for their opinion
and the answer is often immediate and clear.

Should I take the job? Move to the city? Should I try to conceive a child
in my middle age?

They stand in unison shaking their heads and smiling—whatever leads
to joy, they always answer''

This poem is from It's What the Living Do.

Poems As Friends
 

Friendship is a form of emotional medicine, and it has in common with poetry a core of empathy, understanding, and presence — key values of the Poetry Pharmacy. Many of the books and poems we 'prescribe' offer comfort, support, and celebration — perfect for honouring a friend. Fiona Bennett, poet, director, and creative facilitator was a good friend to many, many people. Fiona sadly died in August last year but her work continues to touch countless lives through the power of poetry.
She founded The Poetry Exchange in 2014, guided by a beautiful, transformative idea that poems can act as friends. What began as an artistic enquiry grew into an award-winning international project and podcast, where people from around the world shared the poems that had accompanied them through joy, sorrow, change, and growth.

Fiona created a space where poetry became a living presence - personal, connective, and deeply human. Her own poems have been widely published and recognised, and her creative life spanned collaborations across theatre, dance, education, and organisational change.

Fiona’s work continues to inspire all of us who believe in the healing, companionable power of language. She chose A Kite for Aibhín by Seamus Heaney as a poem that was a friend to her, from Human Chain and you can read it here. 

 

Fiona Bennett signing copies of her book Poems as Friends.

Join poets Roz Goddard and Jane Commane for a poetry spa morning of workshops and readings.