Poetry Pharmacy
Whether you’re suffering from the stresses of the modern world, the pain of a broken heart or simply need a tonic for the spirits, the Poetry Pharmacy has a poetic remedy for you.
As the Emergency Poet, Deborah Alma, assisted by James Sheard, has been dispensing poetry from the back of a vintage ambulance for over seven years at festivals (including StAnza 2015), conferences, care settings, libraries and schools, with a poetry pharmacy of poems-in-pills. In 2019 they opened their doors to welcome people to the world’s first walk-in Poetry Pharmacy in Bishop’s Castle. This beautiful Victorian shop with its original shelves and mahogany counter has been filled with poetry, literary and other gifts, retro and vintage stationery, as well as poetry books and pills. The Poetry Pharmacy has provided a first aid kit of poems-in-pills for StAnza 2020. These will be found in the Old Chemist Shop in the Preservation Trust Museum. Come along and help yourself to one, as long as supplies last.
We also encourage you to be inspired by the Latin labels and health-related artefacts in the Old Chemist Shop and to write a poem yourself as a prescription on one of the prescription pads.
This installation is presented in association with Deborah Alma and the Poetry Pharmacy.