Poem Suggestion

I received this email from kildare.ie.

Hi,

I picked up a leaflet in the library to day ‘Poems in the Waiting Room’ – what a great idea. Can I suggest a poem for a future leaflet? This one appeared on the recent Leaving. Cert. Higher level English paper as the unseen poem. It reminds me of my own lovely kind father.

Regards

She attached the lovely poem, 'Those Winter Sundays' by Robert Hayden.

Well, to respond to your suggestion, I know the poem well. I first came across it in the lovely poetry anthology from Bloodaxe, Staying Alive (or maybe it was Being Alive). The problem is that the poem is still in copyright, he died in 1980, so we would have to pay to include it. We try to keep paying for rights to living poets so most of the poems are out of copyright.

I won't quote it here so I don't breach copyright (but try googling it if you want to read it.)
Any more suggestions?

Dublin's Evening Herald

We're in Dublin's Evening Herald newspaper. A whole page (minus an advert for the Anglo Irish Bank) on page 23.

Just what the doctor ordered - waiting room reading gets a dose of culture with free poetry leaflets.

By Sarah Neville.

A great article. I hope loads of people read it and drop by the website. I hope some doctor's read it and get in touch.

Just a couple of corrections.

We have 2,000 leaflets, not 2,000 poems. We have 6 poems in this first issue. We are sponsored by Kildare County Council Arts Service.

Poems in the Waiting Room was established in the UK in 1995. And not by the National Health but by an Arts In Health Charity. And they are supplying over 1,000 waiting rooms each quarter with a total of 22,000 leaflets, a great achievement. It is no longer supported by the Arts Council but by a number of charitable trusts, including the Beatrice Trust, The Tanner Trust and The Oakdale Trust.

Leaflets Printed

The lovely lads from printworld in Clondalkin have printed our leaflets and they're all ready to send out.

Who can Apply?
Any organisation with a waiting room in Kildare can contact us(leave a comment) to order a set of leaflets to leave for their visitors. The leaflets are issued free with an information and guidelines sheet included in each pack. There is a suggested donation of €20 for each institution, to cover postage and costs but this is not mandatory.

Words Worth Waiting For
Poems in the Waiting Room is a project to supply a short collection of poems for people in waiting rooms in County Kildare. These can be doctor's surgeries, dentists, medical centres, county council offices, hospitals, libraries, clinics, day centres, social welfare offices, NCT centres, anywhere the public has to wait. The waiting room is the one place that at some point, everyone has to pause. It is a room full of strangers that levels us and where we have a chance to reflect. Poetry can help humanise these impersonal places. And hopefully, some people will take away something more than a brief relief to the boredom or worry of the wait. They will take away a newly awakened appreciation of poetry.

What type of poetry?
The poetry is carefully chosen firstly to be accessible. Many people complain of being put off poetry since school so experimental or demanding poetry would not work well in this context. It must also be sensitive to the possible feelings of people in a waiting room, frustrated, worried, even emotionally disturbed. The poetry should speak to all parts of the community. Poems will include those from from contemporary poets with a preference for Kildare based writers. This new work will be put alongside older poems, which are familiar to the older generation, poems for children, which are also enjoyed by adults.

Future
Funds permitting, we will publish more issues. It would be good to tie in poetry readings in some of the waiting rooms. If you have suggestions for poems for future leaflets, please let us know.

Poems in the Waiting Room is supported by the nice people at Kildare County Council Arts Service.