Sometimes it’s nice to branch out of your ordinary reading habits. I recently did so myself after finding a poetry anthology in Waterstones Wandsworth. I was heading to the check out when I noticed a stand of books to one side: Staying Alive, Being Alive and Being Human. They are three anthologies, each consisting of 500 life-affirming poems ‘fired by belief in the human and the spiritual at a time when much in the world feels unreal, inhuman and hollow’.

I had a quick flick through and came across one of my favourite poems, The Bear by Galway Kinnell, which I immediately took as a sign to buy the book. The anthology features poets ranging from Louise Gluck to Ezra Pound and there literally is a poem for everyone. It’s already one of those books I carry around everywhere. So next time you’re in a bookshop, take a detour to the poetry section and see what you can find.

And the days are not full enough
And the nights are not full enough
And life slips by like a field mouse
Not shaking the grass.

– Ezra Pound

Sophie, Editorial Administrator