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Hello and welcome,
We hope you’re finding a little time for yourself as the autumn days draw in. This month, we’re thinking about tender hearts and the words we turn to for help through difficult times. We’re sharing a recent visit to Oxford exploring the history of heartbreak, a new poetry anthology, and a bottle of Poetry Pills for the heart-sore.
You Can Do It With a Broken Heart
Heartbreak comes in many forms. A relationship ending, a friendship lost, a bereavement. Estrangement from someone we love, or the quiet ache of a life that hasn’t turned out as we hoped. Sometimes we’re mourning a person; sometimes the future we imagined with them.
There can be anger, longing, disbelief, relief and sorrow, often all in the same afternoon. There is no single prescription for a broken heart, but poetry has long given us words for these complicated feelings.
We recently took our Poetry Pharmacy dispensary to OVADA in Oxford as part of After Love: Broken Hearts & Broken Bodies, with poetry consultations and an event with Ana Sampson exploring her anthology, You Can Do It With a Broken Heart. The exhibition is part of historian Dr Sally Holloway’s research into the history of romantic heartbreak. Her project explores how people have understood and experienced it over time, including its effects on both body and mind.
Sally’s work focuses on romantic loss, but it opens up a wider question: how do we find language for the pain of losing what we love? This is familiar territory for poetry. A poem can make room for feelings that are difficult to explain, or offer the relief of finding that someone else has been there too.
Ana’s anthology brings together poems for the rawness of heartbreak and the tentative beginnings of recovery. There is room for bitterness and devastation, as well as self-kindness, humour and hope. No requirement to be brave or cheerful before you’re ready.
A book. A bottle. A little help not texting your ex.
We’ve now created a new companion bottle of Poetry Pills, available individually or in a bundle with You Can Do It With a Broken Heart. Handmade in Bishop’s Castle, each glass apothecary bottle holds capsules containing poetic extracts for heart-sore days: words for love’s after-effects and the gradual recovery of the heart.
A little poetic first aid for yourself, or for someone you love who is picking up the pieces.
Directions: Take when the heart is sore, when old memories resurface, or when the future feels unfamiliar. Repeat as required. Allow time for the words to take effect.
Possible side effects: Renewed tenderness towards oneself.
Not to be swallowed, except metaphorically.
Join us in London
On Friday 13 November, from 6.30–7.30pm, Ana will join us at our Oxford Street Poetry Pharmacy with poets Charlie Brogan, Catriona Innes, Jen Feroze, Esther Lay and Jo Bratten for an evening of poetry and conversation. Every copy of the book bought at the event will come with a free bottle of the new Poetry Pills.
Find out more and book your place.
Further Reading
For a little further reading, Maria Popova explores Frida Kahlo’s letters to the photographer Nickolas Muray in this moving essay on heartbreak, wounded pride and the tenderness that can survive the end of a love affair.
Da Capo
Take the used-up heart like a pebble
and throw it far out.
Soon there is nothing left.
Soon the last ripple exhausts itself
in the weeds.
Returning home, slice carrots, onions, celery.
Glaze them in oil before adding
the lentils, water, and herbs.
Then the roasted chestnuts, a little pepper, the salt.
Finish with goat cheese and parsley. Eat.
You may do this, I tell you, it is permitted.
Begin again the story of your life.
Jane Hirshfield
From You Can Do It With a Broken Heart, edited by Ana Sampson, published by First Ink.
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Introducing Poetry Poison: Humbug
This pocket-sized hardback anthology, compiled by our very own Deborah Alma, celebrates Christmas from its less glittering side: family tensions and unwanted visitors, shopping and spending, over-eating, over-drinking and over-doing it; terrible presents, ancient grievances and annual traditions nobody quite remembers agreeing to.
There’s affection here too, because even the committed Christmas cynic is not entirely immune. Beneath the grumbling, something occasionally rises to the surface: a song on the radio, a familiar ritual, a moment of ridiculousness around a crowded table.
But don’t worry. This will pass.
Consider this little volume an antidote to excessive festive sweetness, best taken whenever goodwill to all men begins to feel medically inadvisable.
A literary remedy for your festive grumbles and seasonal emotional ailments, available now in all our bookshops and online!
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We invited Jacqueline Saphra from Poetry in Aldeburgh to write a few words about some of this year’s festival highlights. We’re looking forward to being part of it!
"Poetry in Aldeburgh is poetry by the sea, poetry accompanied by the sound of the waves, the cries of seagulls, legendary fish and chips and the company of friendly and inclusive poets and poetry lovers.
We welcome any level of experience from the poetry-curious to the poetry-obsessed. Whether you enjoy spoken word, poetry with music, or powerful poetry readings and performances from emerging poets and poets at the top of their game, there is something for you.
This year we are especially excited to welcome Deb Alma who will be bringing the Poetry Pharmacy to Aldeburgh in The Infinite Prescription and exploring some of the her feel-good anthologies: Calm, Joy and Comfort alongside poets Dean Atta (Oscar winner!) and Michael Laskey, winner of the King’s Gold Medal for Poetry. You might also enjoy Let Worlds Shake with two fabulous performers, Joelle Taylor and Malika Booker, at our storming gala reading.
Perhaps you’ll even take the stage for the open mic or take part in a mass workshop (no experience necessary) with award-winning Kim Moore and Clare Shaw. Whatever your taste or level of experience in poetry you’ll be welcomed, maybe make new friends and definitely disover new worlds at this friendliest of festivals. Join us! "
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Join poet Chrys Salt and musician Richard Ingham for an evening exploring the richness and complexity of North East India
Rooted in Chrys Salt’s highly regarded collection The Punkawallah’s Rope and born of her performance at the Kolkata Book Fair and an immersive month in Kolkata and North East India, The Punkawallah’s Rope explores the vibrant textures, voices, and contradictions of a continent both dazzling and daunting. Through layered poems and haunting instrumentals played on various Indian instruments - the aludu, the bansuri, gopi yantra by International musician and saxophonist Richard Ingham.
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Start your morning with a burst of creativity at the Poetry Pharmacy London! Join poet Laurie Bolger for a relaxed, playful session of free flow writing in our lush first-floor space on Oxford Street. All stationery and tea are provided - just bring yourself and your imagination. Newbies very welcome; no experience needed!
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Jen is an award-winning poet and creative copywriter who transforms feelings, memories and ideas into heartfelt, personalised poetry. At her regular drop in events at the Poetry Pharmacy on Oxford Street, she crafts bespoke poems live on her trusty vintage typewriter, capturing individual stories and emotions and turning them into unique keepsakes.
Further dates:
Friday 6th & Sunday 22nd November
Sunday 13th December
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Join us and Macmillan for an evening of poison, poetry and general ill-will as we celebrate the publication of our new Poetry Poisons series.
Expect bitter remedies, venomous verses, streams of foul curses, spite, vengeance & wickedness with readings from some of the poets whose work festers within the covers. Come and drink deep from the poison cup.
Readers include: Helen Ivory, Jill Abram, Kathy Pimlott, Joshua Seigal & Suzi Feay.
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Join Jan Westwood for a guided exploration of John Donne’s poetry and why it remains so relevant to today’s reader.
Born in 1572, Donne lived in a complex and divided society, and his poetry explores many themes that still resonate today, including love, sex, death and religion. His work is known for its drama, wit, intensity, paradox and wonderfully inventive use of language.
Jan will take us on a journey through the work of this magnificent poet and fascinating man, exploring what makes his poetry so enduring.
Ticket price includes tea or coffee and cake!
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Join us to celebrate the launch of this raw, relatable and wise new anthology, a beautiful, bittersweet collection of poems about heartbreak, resilience, love and finding your way through.
An evening of poetry, conversation and comfort, as Ana shares poems from the collection and explores how words can help us make sense of heartache, hold onto hope and begin again.
Every copy bought at the event will come with a free bottle of our new Broken Heart Poetry Pills.
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Join the Poetry Pharmacy as we welcome editor/poet Cherry Potts from Arachne Press's latest LGBTQ+ Poetry Anthology, UP//ROAR: Poems of Queer Resistance. UP//ROAR is a follow up to best-selling JOY//US: Poems of Queer Joy. This event will feature performances from Arachne poets, line-up to be confirmed!
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