As a poem editor, I’m so glad William Sieghart founded Poetry Day in 1994. How nice to have a special day set aside every August 21st to celebrate the poets among us who have added wonderful rhythm, rhyme, simile, metaphor, and literary elements as varied as iambic meter and haiku!
Sieghart is the founder of Poetry Day and the author of The Poetry Pharmacy among other works. Thanks to him, poems are now credited for adding more to the human experience than mere enjoyment.
Poetry feeds our souls and attends to our well-being:
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. This pocket-sized book presents the most essential poems in his dispensary: those which, again and again, have really shown themselves to work. Whether you are suffering from loneliness, lack of courage, heartbreak, hopelessness, or even from an excess of ego, there is something here to ease your pain.
Amazon listing description
Sieghart’s TED Talk — The Connective Potential of Poetry
Poem Editor and a Fan
William Sieghart is a British philanthropist, entrepreneur, and publisher who founded Forward Prizes for Poetry, the most influential awards for new poetry in the UK and Ireland, presented once a year. He said the following about the occasion:
There are millions of talented poets out there and it’s about time they got some recognition for their work. They shouldn’t be embarrassed about reading their work out aloud. I want people to read poetry on the bus on their way to work, in the street, in school and in the pub.
From the book editors who specialize in editing poetry to the poets themselves, what a wonderful opportunity this summer to congratulate our creatives worldwide.
Let’s Connect
Do you need a poem editor to go over your poetry and prepare it for publication? If so, contact me at melaniesaxton@icloud.com, and let’s collaborate!