If you love poetry, you may have purchased several anthologies over
the years, but you should still try and find a place for William Sieghart’s ‘The Poetry Pharmacy’ on your bookshelf.
Sieghart is an excellent writer, and what makes this book special is not only the poetry itself but also the concise essays that accompany each one, which helps enormously when it comes to understanding the meaning of the poem and the intent of the poet.
The Poetry Pharmacy provides a beautiful collection of poems for all sorts of problems and concerns in our lives, such as Mental and Emotional Wellbeing, Self-Image, and Love and Loss. Each section has poems for the different elements that make up the main groupings, some of them well known, such as Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If…’, while others will almost certainly be new to you.
For those who have a hard time expressing themselves, reading The Poetry Pharmacy can have a genuinely positive effect.
Reading the individual poems allows you to see deep into the soul of the poet, what is on their mind and in their hearts, and can unlock doors to emotions that often lie dormant until that door is opened. Reading poetry can shine a light on all those shadowy and concealed fissures of the heart and mind once thought eternally closed off to the world.
Sieghart also explains how The Poetry Pharmacy came about, as well as providing a piece on how to read poetry, which should help people new to this magnificent aspect of our culture. So, if you’ve ever wondered why you are thinking or feeling a certain way, or frustrated because your friends or partner cannot possibly understand you because you don’t even understand yourself, you could do worse than reach out for a copy of The Poetry Pharmacy.