Category Archives: Poetry

Ask not what trees can do for us, but what we can do for trees

Posted on August 14, 2022 by Angela

Last weekend I walked through a wood. Sunlight filtered through the  leaves and made me think how medieval stonemasons must have been inspired by the branches of trees gathered in arching vaults above them when they imagined their cathedrals. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, Climate Change, Creativity, Fiction, Places, Poetry, Recycling, Trees, Walking | Leave a comment

When This Is Over … and some Christmas Lights for the dark Winter Nights

Posted on December 14, 2020 by Angela

When this is over, may we never again take for granted a handshake with a stranger, full shelves at the store, conversations with neighbours, a crowded theatre, Friday nights out, the taste of communion, a routine check-up, the school rush … Continue reading →

Posted in Christmas, Coronavirus, Creativity, Good News, Good Things, Love, Poetry | Leave a comment

Deborah Alma’s Poetry Pharmacy: Poetry Prescriptions

Posted on August 14, 2020 by Angela

Last week I had a telephone consultation with a pharmacist. Not an unusual thing to do in these corona-times, but this pharmacist doesn’t dispense drugs. Deborah Alma is a Poetry Pharmacist. Before corona I’d planned to go to The Poetry … Continue reading →

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Clean Air: Act. And a poem and a chat

Posted on June 14, 2020 by Angela

If you’re not as ancient as me you won’t remember the pea-soupers in London: and I’d only been breathing for just under two years at the time so it’s not exactly a memory for me either, but by 1956 The Clean … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate Change, Coronavirus, Creativity, Death and Dying, Listening, One Green Thing, Poetry, Science, Shared Reading | Leave a comment

Poems for these Coronavirus Times

Posted on April 14, 2020 by Angela

 Read by Christopher Eccleston, written by Matthew Kelly for his partner, Jill Scully, who is a district nurse. And here’s one from our poet laureate, Simon Armitage, which, as explained in this Guardian article, moves from the outbreak of bubonic plague … Continue reading →

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Wise and kind words for the Coronavirus pandemic by Adrie Kusserow

Posted on April 7, 2020 by Angela

This poem for these strange times is written by Adrie Kusserow after Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese : it speaks for itself. Mary Oliver for Corona Times, thoughts after the poem Wild Geese, by Adrie Kusserow, ethnographic poet You do not have to … Continue reading →

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How Doctors use Poetry, and a blue-green stone

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Angela

Recently I spent a night in hospital and the thing that struck me about the nursing staff, as I watched them admit new patients to the ward, was their infinite kindness; their ability to explain exactly the same things to … Continue reading →

Posted in Art, Creativity, Jewellery, Mental Health, Poetry, Psychology, Science | Leave a comment

Creativity and Patience; and walks with Mental Health Mates

Posted on September 14, 2018 by Angela

Being an artist means … ripening like the tree which does not force its sap and stands confident in the storms … summer [will] come. But it comes only to the patient … patience is everything! from Rainer Maria Rilke’s advice to Franz Xaver … Continue reading →

Posted in Artists, Creativity, Mental Health, Poetry, Things I'd Love to Have Made, Walking, Writers, Writing | Leave a comment