The Poetry Pharmacy: Tried-and-True Prescriptions for the Heart, Mind and Soul By William Sieghart
If poetry has the power to move – to lift or console or enthuse – why not put that power to use? If poetry is aimed at readers, why not have some experienced poetry reader, one who has himself felt its therapeutic effects, direct the fire? Indeed, why not prescribe individual poems to alleviate particular conditions much as a doctor prescribes potions or pills? More: why not create an almanac of such prescriptions so that individual patients can look up their condition and self-medicate – a sort of poetical Monthly Index of Medical Specialities (or MIMS) for the laity? Such is the eminently benevolent idea behind William Sieghart’s anthology The Poetry Pharmacy. And this idea has not just been thought up – there have been trials. Like genuine pharmaceuticals, the prescribed poems have been tested on a selected public – literary festival goers, Radio 4 listeners, Guardian readers, etc – and been found efficacious and...
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