Now I know the world's gone mad.


David Bircumshaw

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To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2001 3:45 PM
Subject: [little-magazines-updates] Poems in the Waiting Room


Poems in the Waiting Room continues to thrive and to grow. Submissions of
poems for publication in future editions are very welcome.

Poems in the Waiting Room provides small pamphlets of poetry suitable for
patients to read in the Waiting Room. There is no charge in any way for the
service. The scheme seeks simply to say 'thank you' to health services'
personnel for care and treatment received. The objective is just to make a
patient's short wait more pleasant. The selection of poetry combines work
from the canon of the English language with contemporary verse. The
collection is presented on an A4 three-folded card, printed both sides.
Readers are invited to take the pamphlet away. In this way, it becomes a
enduring rather than ephemeral contact with the poems. The poetry project is
funded entirely by Lee Donaldson Associates, economic and environmental
consultants, in collaboration with the Poetry Society.

Poems in the Waiting Room pamphlets are distributed throughout Britain. The
scheme was formally launched in September 1998, after a trial publication
and a survey of the response in Spring 1996. Distribution initially covered
South West London, but the project was extended nation wide from early 2000.
Collections are published in spring (green), summer (red), autumn (gold),
and winter (blue). The Autumn edition has just been published with a print
run of some 8500; the distribution now extends to almost 300 health service
waiting rooms.


Careful thought needs be given to the selection of verse and the overall
thrust of a collection. Readers are patients waiting for a medical
consultation. They are possibly already likely to be in a heightened state,
anxious and concerned, or even emotionally disturbed. A poem therefore needs
to have a strong 'feel good' character. The poems stress things being good
and getting better, with the worst quite unlikely to happen. A poem is
acceptable only if it is sensitive to the patient's feeling in ways that
alleviate pressures, and avoid new emotional challenges. However, the poems
may not be too anodyne to become poezac, the literary form of Muzak, since
interest is rapidly lost. Our medical consultants advise that we should
avoid any specific medical poetry! Poems which highlight somatic experience
or body awareness, without medical details, however work.


Variety in a selection is essential. Poems might exploit waiting and the
waiting room experience itself. Poems about time and pressures of time are
most appropriate, as well as those about identity of self or other people,
when confronting a large scale organisation like the National Health
Service. Poems which are simply a good but short gossip, typical of what you
might hear in the waiting room, also may suit.

Further, the poems selected are highly accessible and do not make demands
upon patients. They conform to popular notions of poetry rather than open up
new fields or aspects of the medium. The mixture of old and contemporary
poems is strongly preferred by patients, with familiar 'real poetry' being
linked to work by living writers. To allow scope for variety in a
collection, short poems (about twenty or so lines) are preferred.

I am hoping to increase the proportion of verse published from contemporary
poets. I would not expect anyone to write to the guidelines, but it may well
be that some of your work would suit the series. I would be happy to see
anything that you may consider suitable. Email submission are especially
welcome; I have found that 'copy/paste' is still by far the best means of
transmission! Also, let me know if you would like to see the full submission
guidelines or a sample issue of the series; I will then happily mail them to
you. With all good wishes Michael Lee [log in to unmask]
Poems in the Waiting Room 34 Beechwood Avenue Kew Gardens Richmond Surrey
TW9