Life And Poetic Emotions

British counselor Hedges suggests how poetry can be used in therapy. First she explores general themes such as life transitions, spirituality, attachment and loss, and journeys. Then she and contributing creative writers look at running creative writing groups, poetry in healthcare settings, using poetry with young and elderly people, and poetry in counseling training. Published by Radcliffe Medical Press, Ltd.; U.S. distribution is by BookMasters. Annotation :2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com).

I started writing many years ago. At fi rst it was just mental therapy for me. My doctor, very great psychologist told me that if I wrote my feelings down on paper that it would help me feel better and cope with whats bothering me in my head. I suffered many horrors in my life and I needed a way cope and live a normal life. Well my life isnt exactly normal as you will read. And neither are some of my poems. The question for me to ask is anyones life really normal? I wanted my life to be written so that the future generations of my family will know about me. And will know of how I became the person that I ended up to be. By accident I realized that I could write poems of many kinds. A guarantee that you will laugh and sometimes cry and even learn from my poems. Of how to love, heal, cope, laugh, cry, live and get even through my poems. Many of my friends online around the world give me subjects to write about. To be their words for them to speak to others. To help, to Heal, to dream, reasons to live and reasons to want to pray. And reasons to not want to die. I thought to myself that if Im going to be a writer that I dont want to let one subject to be untouched. To speak out words that I feel need to be heard through my poems. I want my book to be of help to others for whatever needs they have. And I pray with my whole heart that you get something good out of what you are about to read. And whether you believe it or not you will fi nd in my book of something that you might need written in one or more of my poems. And the life story is to help you know that your life is better than you may have thought. In my poems there is something for everyone. And that means you. My e-mail is written in my book if you would like to write me or even comment on my book. Weather good or bad happy or sad I would like to know of how you feel.

Prozac has side effects, drinking gives you hangovers, therapy's expensive. For quick and effective relief -- or at least some literary comfort -- from everyday and exceptional problems, try a poem. Over the ages, people have turned to poets as ambassadors of the emotions, because they give voice and definition to our troubles, and by so doing, ease them. No matter how bad things get, poets have been there, too, and they can help you get over the rough spots. This is the first poetry anthology designed expressly for the self-help generation. The poems listed include classics by Emily Dickinson, Lord Byron, Ogden Nash, and Lucretius, to name just a few, along with newer works by such current practitioners as Seamus Heaney and Wendy Cope. This book has a cure or consolation for nearly every affliction, ancient or modern. And no side effects-except pleasure.

The poems in this collection describe feelings and experiences lived, imagined or born out of a sensory kinship of possibilities. It derives from an emotional universe that respects the power of words, ideas and feelings to transform human possibilities, emotionally and physically, to make our world what we wish it to be. Poetry today has to be accessible if it is to compete with other forms of communication. This collection seeks to do that.

The meaning of life and emotion as described in the most poetic words to make a person think twice.

From the author-illustrator of The Book of Mistakes comes a gorgeous picture book about caring for your own heart and living with kindness and empathy. My heart is a window. My heart is a slide. My heart can be closed...or opened up wide. Some days your heart is a puddle or a fence to keep the world out. But some days it is wide open to the love that surrounds you. With lyrical text and breathtaking art, My Heart empowers all readers to listen to the guide within in this ode to love and self-acceptance.

I sang yesterday and I am still singing. People did not see my art yet, I put it on the pages of my book, all my dreams and my sorrows. Every word will show the readers what was running in my deep feelings. Dr. Nabil El-Halawany