The Poetry Cure is an anthology of poems published by Bloodaxe and edited by Julia Darling and Cynthia Fuller. The editors wrote ‘this book of poems is for all of us who go through illness, deal with doctors, hospitals, and experiences such as bereavement and ageing, and who struggle to find language to describe the suffering we have to go through. Medical language baffles and alienates us. It’s a harsh, unforgiving vocabulary that often seems to bear no relationship to our own emotional predicament. In this uplifting anthology we see how poetry can give us metaphors and images to help us understand our feelings and communicate them to people around us.’
‘I believe that poetry can help to make you better. Poetry is essential, not a frill or a nicety.’
It includes poems from Sharon Olds, Adrienne Rich, Anthony Thwaite, Pascal Petit, Linda France, Kathleen Jamie, Jo Shapcott, Anne Stevenson, Elizabeth Bishop, Jackie Kay, U.A. Fanthorpe, Wendy Cope, C.K. Williams, and Myra Schneider.