A Poet for Every Day of the Year

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I am happy to have completed this anthology and with continue with another one from the same editor. From Shakespeare, Emily Bronte and William Wordsworth through to Wendy Cope, Sylvia Plath and Leonard Cohen, this lovely book invites readers to make poetry a part of their everyday routine. These poetic prescriptions and wise words of advice offer comfort, delight and inspiration for all; a space for reflection, and that precious realization - I'm not the only one who feels like this. The day-to-day format of the anthology invites readers to make poetry a part of their daily routine, and makes sure that they discover something inspirational, life affirming, provocative, moving or entertaining each and every day. This pocket-sized book presents the most essential poems in his dispensary: those which, again and again, have really shown themselves to work.

In the years since he first had the idea of prescribing short, powerful poems for all manner of spiritual ailments, William Sieghart has taken his Poetry Pharmacy around the length and breadth of Britain, into the pages of the Guardian, onto BBC Radio 4 and onto the television, honing his prescriptions all the time. What is particularly enjoyable about this book is its layout providing detail about the poet such as the time they lived in making it a wonderful collection to dip into and I would thoroughly recommend adding it to any book lovers collection. This year has been a very busy and at times stressful year so reading a poem every day has helped me to cope and put me in a good place at the beginning of each day.Sometimes I did feel a few of the poems were overly long with too much description but most were short and easy to read. For example, when I opened my copy on the day I received it, the poet was John Clare who just happens to have lived three miles from where I am, but there are other poets I’m much less familiar with so I have an introduction that can lead me to discovering more of their work. I have listed some of my favourites from this listening below but I think if I re-listen at some other time time of year this list might be totally different.

I’m not really a fan of the format; each piece of information could have been in separate lines or columns. Some offer insightful biographical details or key historical context, while others may provide quirky, humorous anecdotes. There is balm for the soul, fire for the belly, a cooling compress for the fevered brow, solace for the wounded, an arm around the lonely shoulder - the whole collection is a matchless compound of hug, tonic and kiss' Stephen FrySometimes only a poem will do. I listened to this as an audio book I had borrowed from the library and would listen to a few poems each day.This soul-enhancing book is the perfect gift that will last the whole year, with a little bit of magic to read every day. However, one minor point is that there was some overlap with 'A Poem for Every Night of the Year', which I think should've been avoided, considering it's the same editor publishing these anthologies. A wonderful collection of classic and modern poetry accompanies the changing seasons throughout the year. Let the Light Pour In is a collection of the best of these poems, and a book celebrating this morning practice. In 100 Poems, readers will enjoy the most loved and celebrated poems, as well as discovering new favourites.

Life-affirming, witty and full of wonder, these poems chronicle his own battle with the dark and are fuelled by resilience and defiant joy.He never managed to do this himself, and no other edition exists which has such a broad range, drawing from first to last of his prize-winning collections.