I come into the peace of wild things

This week our newsletter comes at a time, where here in the UK, spring is arriving slowly and insistently. Buds are unfurling, daylight lingers longer, and the first green shoots are pushing through the soil. And yet, as Poetry Pharmacists we are being asked for poetry prescriptions for navigating the world when it seems particularly dark and uncertain, or for trying to make sense of it. There is such a seeming dissonance between enjoying the beautiful Spring days we're having here in the UK, and the news. How can we still take pleasure in these small things, the new growth on the apple tree, or the birds returning to make their nests? And is it still possible to experience joy and gratitude when the news is so unsettling?

We would like to invite you to take a moment to notice a small joy - a cup of tea in the garden, a warm bath, or the view from your window - and linger just a few seconds longer than usual. Our favourites this week have been pressing seeds into pots, and watching blue tits build their nests.

Poetry too, can guide us toward a sense of joy and calm, even when the world feels uncertain. Wendell Berry’s The Peace of Wild Things (from his book of the same name) is a poem we return to again and again. 

And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

You can read the whole poem here

Wendell Berry

Even for a few moments, noticing these small joys, watching nature unfold, or returning to poetry, can be a gentle tonic for the heart and mind.

Here's some further reading recommendations for days when 'the World is Too Much With Us...'


A Month in York

Our York shop has now been open for a month! Our wonderful team are settling in beautifully, confidently writing poetry prescriptions for our customers, and embracing life as Poetry Pharmacists. We’ve been delighted to receive such thoughtful and encouraging feedback from both customers and local media — including York Mix and York Mumbler. It’s a lovely reminder of the value of meeting each other in person and connecting over poetry and literature.

Our events line up in York is shaping up nicely - you can see what we've got brewing here.

Take a look at some photos of our first few weeks in York below!
         
       

A Literary Elixir for Uncertain Times

Our beautiful bespoke Poetry Pharmacy Gift Boxes are inspired by the sections of our bookshops and the Poetry Prescription anthologies and offer a potent dose of literary and sensory comfort. Inside, you’ll discover a pocket-sized poetry anthology, a poetic prescription, and a chocolate treat designed to soothe and uplift.

A gift for the inner life - for the part of us that reflects, feels, and searches for meaning. Our gift boxes are designed to lift the spirits, offering a sense of solace, connection, and a reminder that they are not alone. It is a way of acknowledging what someone may be going through.

A thoughtful gift can say so much: I see you. I understand. I’m here. You are loved.
And wherever they are, you can reach them. We ship to most parts of the world,  so a gift, sent at just the right moment, can travel far beyond your doorstep.

Join award winning poet Caroline Smith to discover how the mundane & the life critical can be the raw materials for creativity. The snatched fragment of time, the poignant, the humorous. How can experience be caught and transfigured.

We will explore poetry of consolation and poetry of warning: of care for the self and family and care for our communities and world. Why does a poem work, why does it fail, when does the tender become sentimental, a passionate cause become ‘a design on others.’

Using sources, inspirations and prompts we will generate new poems and write in unexpected ways - exploring passion and heartbreak, care we have received, care we have given, poetry that steps forward and poetry that lets go.

Join our bookseller and director of York Literature Festival, Chloe Hanks for a thoughtful, carefully held conversation with J. T. Welsch, author of The Poetry of Suicide - Lessons in grief from the lives and deaths of poets.

In this event, Welsch reflects on poetry’s long engagement with suicide, drawing together literary voices such as Hamlet, Dante, Sylvia Plath, and Vladimir Mayakovsky with the deeply personal history of suicide within his own family. Rather than offering answers or conclusions, the conversation explores ambiguity, contradiction, and the limits of interpretation, asking what poetry can teach us about experiences that resist simple explanation.

The event will take place as a guided conversation, with space for listening, reflection, and audience questions.

Please note: this event engages with themes of suicide and death. A gentle content note and support resources will be shared. Attendees are welcome to step out at any point.

This show is an exclusive performance of Alistair's poems, separate from his 3-in-1 piano and poetry performance tour. This is Alistair - like never before - commenting on a world that is accelerating "like never before".

Join poet Jonathan Davidson for a Poetry Walk starting and finishing at The Poetry Pharmacy Lab in Bishop's Castle. Using a circular route, we will stroll along small roads and footpaths, stopping now and then to hear some poems read aloud in the open air. Copies of poems – by various carefully selected poets – will be provided, although participants are welcome to bring along short poems of their own to share.

While the walk will only be a few kilometres and therefore not too strenuous, it will involve stiles and quite possibly mud, so participants will be asked to bring along suitable footwear and clothing. We’ll walk at the pace of the slowest, the better to chat and enjoy the views. The ticket includes a drink and cake at journey’s end and numbers will be limited to 12 participants.