Newsletter

18/05/2025- the most beautiful part of your body is where it's headed
Welcome to this week’s Poetry Pharmacy newsletter, where words are our medicine and addressing a search for meaning is often part of the prescription. This time, we’re exploring the intersection between poetry and philosophy—two practices trying to make sense of the world. They each seek to investigate some profound questions about human existence and the world we live in. TS Eliot’s Burnt Norton, the first of his Four Quartets, is deeply philosophical in its exploration of time, memory, and the nature of existence. Drawing on both Christian mysticism and classical philosophy, Eliot reflects on the idea... Read more...
13/05/2025- Poetry Pharmacy News!
Welcome to the Poetry Pharmacy newsletter! Here in our Shropshire bookshop we’re gearing up for next week’s Bishop's Castle Walking Festival, with a fresh new window display to mark the occasion painted by local artist Saffron Russell. We’re also excited to be working on a range of new collaborations and projects. Our former Lab where we cooked up our poetry prescriptions is currently being transformed into a vibrant venue for workshops and events - offering us more room and more possibilities to connect with you all! As spring deepens and the evenings grow longer, we’re filled with renewed... Read more...
10/05/2025- To hear ourselves, we sometimes have to flee ourselves
Welcome to the Poetry Pharmacy newsletter! Here in our Shropshire bookshop we’re gearing up for next week’s Bishop's Castle Walking Festival, with a fresh new window display to mark the occasion painted by local artist Saffron Russell. We’re also excited to be working on a range of new collaborations and projects. Our former Lab where we cooked up our poetry prescriptions is currently being transformed into a vibrant venue for workshops and events - offering us more room and more possibilities to connect with you all! As spring deepens and the evenings grow longer, we’re filled with renewed... Read more...
03/05/2025- I want to say I think we are so beautiful
Welcome to the Poetry Pharmacy newsletter where in the UK, we're enjoying some beautiful May sunshine and are now settled into our new production Lab, working on lots of collaborations and looking forward to a busy Summer. We said goodbye this week to Esther Cooper-Wood who has been working with us for the last 6 months on some new designs and getting our Shropshire bookshop and coffee shop into good shape. We'll miss her, but wish her well as she sets of to work around Canada for a few months. 100... Read more...
26/04/2025- love audible in water falling
Prescriptions for CalmApril is Stress Awareness Month, an annual event dedicated to increasing public awareness about the causes and cures of stress. This year's theme is Lead With Love - an invitation to be kinder and more compassionate to ourselves and others in an increasingly confusing world.With the long Easter weekend behind us, those everyday stresses can soon stack up as normal life resumes. Recommended approaches for stress management are taking time for activities that we enjoy and that relax us. At the Poetry Pharmacy, we love to spread the word on kindness and... Read more...
13/04/2025- I still can sing
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 WebbSpring 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... Read more...
07/04/2025- sometimes, when you spill lemons
Everyday WonderThis week our newsletter comes at a time, where 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 clear sunny 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... Read more...
28/03/2025- She asked me if she took one pill...
'Big Pharma' in Shropshire! This week's big Poetry Pharmacy news is our move to an industrial unit just outside of town, where we can expand our pharmaceutical operations. Production of our prescription meds has outgrown the little lab we opened a year ago, and our airy new space will ensure we can keep well stocked for future poetic emergencies. We're very happy that little lines of poetry are getting into so many hands.   The Art of Medicine with Deb AlmaOur Chief Poetry Pharmacist Deb Alma was invited to speak to an audience of medical practitioners... Read more...
21/03/2025- Spring has me astir, brimming with gratitude
Happy World Poetry Day! Every day is poetry day at the Poetry Pharmacy and we are enjoying some the first stirrings of Spring here at the Poetry Pharmacy. This week's Spring Equinox was full of sunshine, and the cheerfulness of daffodils on the hillsides and rural lanes in Shropshire. And we can't help but feel a little more hopeful and energetic with the returning of the light.NewsOur exciting news this week is the arrival of the first copies of the latest Poetry Prescription titles, Wild Remedy and Becoming.These two beautiful pocket-sized gift books contain carefully... Read more...
15/03/2025- with her habit of colour, her habit of light
The sky was like a blue nest with white feathers And the sun was the mother bird keeping it warm      Katherine Mansfield Sunday 30 March is Mother's Day Mothers, motherhood, mother figures and being mothered are themes long celebrated in poetry. At our Poetry Pharmacies in Bishop's Castle and Oxford Street, we have a range of beautiful books, art cards and poetic remedies for the mothers and nurturing women in our lives.Mother’s Day can be complex for many, whether due to loss, strained relationships, or personal circumstances. At the Poetry Pharmacy we honor... Read more...
08/03/2025- A woman who follows her own trail
In which our poetry pharmacists offer words of wisdom for making meaningful connection…Welcome to the Poetry Pharmacy's newsletter!  Here you will find upcoming events, new and featured books, poems, prescriptions, and panaceas.  To business that we love we rise betime,And go to 't with delight.William Shakespeare, from Antony and CleopatraOur most exciting news this week is the launch of Chief Poetry Pharmacist’s Deb Alma’s latest title, The Poetry Business School.Sharing poetry is what brought about an impromptu friendship between Mark Constantine and Poetry Pharmacy’s founder Deb Alma. When the Poetry Pharmacy made it to the... Read more...
02/03/2025- And you have come into the world to do this...
In which our poetry pharmacists celebrate the poems and professionals that restore us...Welcome to the Poetry Pharmacy's newsletter!  Here you will find upcoming events, new and featured books, poems, prescriptions, and panaceas.  Let the beauty we love be what we do  - There are hundreds of ways to Kneel and kiss the ground       Rumi Poetic Remedies to Lift the Spirits Salve for the Soul; for Resistance to Burnout & the Promotion of a Hopeful and Healed Future This week in the UK, the sun has been shining brightly, offering a... Read more...