nothing is worth more than this day

Hello and Welcome,

And as always, thank you so much for reading. Whether you've been with us for years or have only recently discovered the Poetry Pharmacy, we're so glad you're here. The community that gathers around these newsletters means a great deal to us, and this month there's a small opportunity for you to become part of what we do. This week we're delighted to announce a collaboration with Wee Sparrow Press on a new poetic remedy that will soon be taking its place on the shelves of our pharmacy. 
Inspired by this collaboration, this week we're trying to cultivate a new habit: noticing glimmers.

It might be as small as a shaft of sunlight across a wall, or that familiar smell of coffee brewing; maybe a blackbird singing from a rooftop and freshly laundered sheets. These are the small and invaluable moments that help us feel properly present and lift our spirits. 

Poets have always been especially attuned to such things. Poetry begins in attention, in the practice of noticing what might otherwise pass us by. A glimmer is often nothing more than a fleeting detail, but when we pause to recognise it, it can become a small act of restoration.  
If you've not come across it before, the term Glimmers was coined by psychologist Deb Dana, whose work builds on Polyvagal theory, the idea that our nervous system is constantly scanning the world around us for cues of danger or safety. If our bodies are wired to seek out triggers, Dana argues, they're equally capable of finding their opposite: micro-moments of calm that gently regulate us when we're feeling out of kilter. These tiny experiences of joy, safety and groundedness are glimmers and the more we learn to notice them, the more we can, as Dana puts it, "shape our system in very gentle ways."

We love Nadia Narain and Katia Narain Phillips' beautiful book Glimmers, which explores how tuning into these signals from your body can lift your mood, ease tension, and help you find beauty and joy in everyday life. In a world that makes constant demands on our nervous systems, it feels more important than ever. These brief and subtle sparks of joy can improve our wellbeing when we allow ourselves to be present and appreciate them.

Kathryn Bevis's poem This from her collection The Butterfly House is  a gentle reminder of the beauty to be found around us.

This

A fire has been lit in new leaves
will grow to a green world
in the dark wood. Small whites
rise in drifts to the swish of our boots.
Nothing is worth more than this day.

A pair of grey wagtails fly low,
gold-bellied, over the rushing river.
Their bodies translate water
to sunlight, sunlight to water.
Nothing is worth more than this day.

Here, the wind toys with leaves like loose
change in the pockets of the sky.
High above, a wood pigeon calls to us,
wild and true, who are you, who who?
Nothing is worth more than this day.

from Poetry Prescription: Comfort

Wee poetry pharmacist sparrow by Colin Thom

And because glimmers are best when shared, we're delighted to share details of a special collaboration between the Poetry Pharmacy and The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press.

We're inviting poets from around the world to write about those moments of comfort, delight and connection that brighten our days.

The Wee Sparrow Poetry Press editors Claire Thom and Cristina M.R. Norcross, together with our very own Deborah Alma, will select 26 poems to be transformed into Poetry Pill bottles and sold in Poetry Pharmacy shops. Selected poets will also receive a pill bottle featuring their own work.

Submission Guidelines
Submissions open 15th–30th June, and will close at midnight.

• Maximum two poems per poet
• Previously unpublished only - including social media and personal blogs
• Untitled poems only
• Maximum 250 characters (including spaces) and up to four lines
• Send as a Word or PDF attachment titled Glimmers to glimmerspoetry@gmail.com — your name must not appear on the document, as submissions are read blind
• Include your full name (as you'd like it in print) and country of residence in the body of your email

We hope you'll notice a few glimmers today.

At the Poetry Pharmacy, we've always believed that creativity grows through collaboration. Alongside our books and poetry prescriptions, we're proud to work with and champion fellow independent businesses whose values resonate with our own.

From the beautifully crafted literary gifts of Bookishly and Literary Gift Company to the thoughtful wellbeing work of The School of Life and the pioneering creativity of Lush, we're continually inspired by people finding imaginative ways to bring comfort, connection and meaning into everyday life.We encourage you to seek out and support these independent businesses whenever you can. In a world increasingly dominated by large corporations and algorithms, choosing to spend your time and money with thoughtful, values-led organisations helps sustain the creativity, individuality and human connection that make our communities richer.

We're grateful to be part of a community of makers, thinkers and storytellers who remind us that the best ideas are often shared ones.

This month, we're especially pleased to shine a light on our friends at Lush. Despite its global reach and remarkable success, Lush remains a family-run business, guided by the same spirit of creativity, curiosity and ethical purpose that shaped it from the beginning. Their willingness to take risks, think differently and put people at the heart of what they do continues to inspire us.

We're grateful to be part of a community of makers, thinkers and storytellers who remind us that the best ideas are often shared ones.

Join Holly Winter-Hughes (How to Leave a Body, Verve) as she gently guides you through the process of using writing as a way to connect with ourselves and our embodied stories. Looking at poems that explore themes of embodiment, as well as tapping into our own somatic experiences to enrich our work.

Holly used poetry to reconnect with her body after years of dissociation and embodied trauma. She is passionate about bringing the stories held in our bodies to the light, finding fresh way to tell them to deepen personal and community connection.

In this celebration of our bodies and our stories, we’ll bring our somatic experiences into our work, for more visceral, sensuous and engaging writing. This series is all about connection, healing and community.

Each session will focus on autonomy and only going as deep as you wish in your own writing. You will be encouraged and supported in taking ownership of your words.

You are welcome to return each session to build on your embodied experiences, but each session will also welcome newcomers.

Join Anna Dreda, former proprietor of the magical Wenlock Books, for her seasonal Poetry Pharmacy Poetry Breakfast! Read, share and listen to your favourite poems on the theme: ‘What The Roses Said To Me’ by Lahab Assef Al-Jundi.

Bring your favourite poems* on roses, midsummer, long days, short nights, Dawn chorus - whatever is sparked for you by this time in the year when nature is so abundantly beautiful and our hearts sing

We’ll read to each other over coffee and croissants in the bright and airy space of the Poetry Pharmacy lab, and if you want to come and ‘just’ listen, that’s perfect, too.

* published poems only please.

Join award-winning poets Tahmina Ali, Bob Beagrie and Harry Man for a special evening of conversation presented in partnership with the Royal Literary Fund.

Part of a series of eight events bringing together poets, playwrights, novelists and screenwriters from across Northern England, this thoughtful discussion will explore poetry’s lasting power — how poems can comfort, why certain lines remain with us, and whether poetry can quietly alter the course of a life.

Together, the poets will reflect on how readers encounter transformation through poetry, and on the ways the artform has shaped their own lives. Drawing from the rich archive of the Royal Literary Fund, each writer will revisit the words of some of the country’s most celebrated poets, using them as a starting point for a wider conversation about poetry’s enduring impact.

All are warmly welcome.

Join poet Chrys Salt and musician Richard Ingham for an evening exploring the richness and complexity of North East India.

Rooted in Chrys Salt’s highly regarded collection The Punkawallah’s Rope, and born from her performance at the Kolkata Book Fair, as well as an immersive month spent in Kolkata and North East India, The Punkawallah’s Rope explores the vibrant textures, voices, and contradictions of a continent that is both dazzling and daunting.

Through layered poems and haunting instrumentals - played on a range of Indian instruments, including the aludu, bansuri and gopi yantra, by international musician and saxophonist Richard Ingham - the performance poses the question:

How can a middle-class white woman begin to understand and engage with this most complex and challenging of continents?

Join us to raise a glass to celebrate the launch of Sarah Salway's latest collection, The Hands of a Gardener. A collection which conjures up the magic of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown the man responsible for reshaping the English landscape as we still know it today. It is a story of ambition, social change, and many influential women previously hidden from history.

Sarah Salway is a novelist, poet and short-story writer whose work is rooted in gardens and the natural world. Sarah grew up on a Cambridgeshire herb farm, and her writing has appeared in public parks and gardens, as well as in journals and books. Her previous collection, Learning Springsteen on my Language App, was the joint winner of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Prize.

A former Canterbury Laureate, Sarah trained as a journalist at the London College of Fashion and studied Garden History at Birkbeck, University of London. She currently runs regular workshops on writing and reading for the Royal Literary Fund.

We’ll be exploring the literary landmarks and poetic stories of Marylebone and Soho with Liz Ison, and ending at Oxford Street’s literary landmark, the Poetry Pharmacy. Included in the walk will be tales about Lord Byron, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Katherine Mansfield, Dylan Thomas, William Blake, Shakespeare, Shelley, Oscar Wilde. The aim is to “take poetry for a walk” so we will be including readings along the way.

Ticket price of £38 includes:

• Two hour guided walk with anthologist Liz Ison 
• Delicious refreshments at the Poetry Pharmacy, Oxford Street
• A Poetry Pharmacy bundle of 100 Poems to Grow Your Confidence and a bottle of Confidence Poetry Pharmacy pills

We’ll be bringing poetry and literature off the bookshelves and outside by spending time in one of the capital’s most beautiful parks, St James's Park, seeing how the combined power of poetry and parks can help us to relax and unwind, before further literary wanderings through the districts of St James's and Piccadilly, ending up at the Poetry Pharmacy in Oxford Street.

The walk will finish at the Poetry Pharmacy on Oxford Street for tea and cake where participants will also receive a Poetry Pharmacy goody bag!

Ticket price of £38 includes:

• Two hour guided walk with anthologist Liz Ison
• Delicious refreshments at the Poetry Pharmacy, Oxford Street
• A Poetry Pharmacy bundle of a copy of 100 Poems to Help you Relax, edited by Liz, and your own bottle of Relax pills, specially created to celebrate the publication of this lovely book.