The Poetry Pharmacy Returns by William Sieghart is a collection of poetry that Sieghart advises can help with our emotional states and the lessons that can be learned from poetry.
I loved the descriptions before each poem selected and the way in which it includes the emotions that may be felt if looking for a particular poem to help with that feeling.
Strength and Healing was my favourite part of the collection however the whole book flowed well in pace and poetry chosen.
A book I would recommend to anyone.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This follow-up to Poetry Pharmacy has a kinder touch overall. Something I would like to have on my shelf.

The theme carries itself more consistently this time around, compared to the previous book. A more humbling experience. Too many favourite poems to list!

Still skipping the “prescriptions”.

4 stars!

A beautiful book. No matter what you’re feeling, this book will contain a poem to lift your spirits or help you feel less alone. From grief, to heartbreak to familial issues, this book covers it all and on each page is a new piece of poetry to discover.

A poetry collection which holds the prescription for any ailment! As someone fairly new to poetry, and who struggles to get to grips with it sometimes, this was a brilliant introduction to the genre. I loved the explanations of how to read poetry, and the psychological element to the opening of each poem - poems are broken down by condition, so for example, there’s a poem for Letting Go or Grief and a brief explanation of the condition before the poem.
There is wonderful lack of pretension to this collection, and I can’t recommend it enough for anyone dipping their toe in the water! This is one to keep and flick through whenever times get difficult.

I enjoyed this as much as the first volume. This also reminds me of the Being Alive series from Bloodaxe Books on a much smaller scale. This is an interesting mix of more recent contemporary and older contemporary poets. Some of my favourites are among them including Fleur Adcock, Denise Levertov, Mary Oliver and Kate Tempest. I also found some new poetic voices including Mark Strand, John O’Donohue and Grace Nichols. Like the first volume, I would have preferred more than one poem for each theme.

I'd already read the first 'The Poetry Pharmacy' book so I knew what to expect here and this is more of the same. I say that in a totally positive way, though - there's plenty of new things to discover here!

For those who haven't come across these books before, William Sieghart believes that poetry can genuinely support good mental health, either from giving you a different perspective on your problem or by giving you the comfort that whatever you face is something that other people have felt too. To this end, he has been a regular prescriber of poetry to people who come to him with problems. These books pick a problem, explain it, give an introduction to a relevant poem and then print the poem. A simple idea, but both interesting and quite effective, I found.

This covers a full range of different problems and poems to the first book in the series, although I had the sense that the introduction is the same or extremely similar. The poems are a selection of poetry from across time and cultures - from Rumi to Larkin, Neruda to Akhmatova, Atwood to Khalvati and many others I had never heard of before. There is also a little gem from Raymond Carver that perfectly encapsulates my feelings of lethargy in the current lockdown!

If you are open to the idea that poetry can help soothe the mind, then I would recommend this book wholeheartedly. I'm one of life's cynics but I still found lots to enjoy and some real food for thought.

As with the original 'Poetry Pharmacy', this book is an intelligently and sympathetically designed work that provides poetry with a secular social role. Rather than hastily riding the wave of its predecessor, 'The Poetry Pharmacy Returns' offers a fresh array of pertinent prescriptions. Sieghart conveys the community that has grown around his poetry prescriptions and the subsequent anthologies in a lovely way, inviting the reader to join this gentle network. As with the first text, I found the 'Index of Conditions' an easier tool with which to navigate the text than the contents page. The 'also suitable for' suggestions that appear under every condition sub-title is also helpful and, I find, helps to frame a poem as multi-faceted before I begin to read.

I was lucky enough to be sent a copy of the poetry pharmacy before it’s published date on my iPad kindle & wow, I am so glad that I read this!
As a poetry writer myself, I absolutely loved this book and viewing all the different poems produced through the years, all about a particular passionate topic of mine- mental health. William Sieghart uses poetry as a form of healing, for all types of people around the world. There is a poem for every form of emotion or situation that life has sprung upon us. I could relate to near enough every single poem I read, others I favoured more than others, but I came away feeling empowered, inspired & amazed at what these words made me feel. As someone who suffers from anxiety & has experienced mental health struggles, There is certainly a poem for everyone, no matter where you are in life!
I thoroughly recommend to anyone who may be struggling currently or previously. This is absolutely a brilliant form of healing your soul, allowing your thoughts to drift & acknowledging your feelings.
This is a definite ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ from me!

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