This morning, I came across a reel of Helena Bonham Carter reciting a poem:

Her recitation was so masterful that it made me feel like I could understand poetry.

This afternoon, while listening to the BBC's 75th anniversary edition of its Desert Island Discs program, I heard Maya Angelou talk about the power of poetry. She said that a traumatic incident when she was 7½ left her unable to speak for five years. Host Michael Parkinson asked, "What rescued you from that silence?" She replied, "Poetry." She told the story of a woman in her town who kept insisting Angelou didn't like poetry, finally saying to the young girl: "You'll never like it. Until you speak it, until you feel it come across your tongue, through your teeth, over your lips, you will never love poetry." Angelou said the woman harassed her until one day, she (Angelou) went off on her own and tried to speak poetry. "And I had a voice," she said. "Mrs. Flowers and poetry returned my voice."

This evening, still thinking about Carter's recitation of "The Guest House," I went searching for more poetry narrations by the actress. My search led me to a video on The Power of Poetry, in which she and other actors recite poems. Through that video, I learned of The Poetry Pharmacy, a project of William Sieghart, who is a British publisher, philanthropist and author. On his website, Sieghart writes: "I’ve always believed in the power of poetry to explain people to themselves." After publishing an anthology of poems, Sieghart's friend Jenny Dyson came up with the idea of having Sieghart prescribe poems from the anthology to audience members at a literary festival. Dyson set up Sieghart in a tent with two armchairs and a prescription pad. Each person would have 10 minutes to share what was troubling them, and Seighart would prescribe a relevant poem. After hours of appointments, with people still waiting in queues for their chance at a prescription, Seighart says he knew they were onto something. He writes: "Suffering is the access point to poetry for a lot of people: that’s when they open their ears, hearts and minds." Poems can not only provide great comfort to those who are struggling, but also create a love of poetry that can last a lifetime, says Sieghart.

The Poetry Pharmacy website led me to The Poetry Pharmacy's Instagram page. Its most recent post spoke to me:

This poem reminds me of my cancer journey: a certain day that became a presence; a blow that rang out; a bell that awakened me; and a determination that "what I heard was my whole self saying and singing what it knew: I can." Rumi's "The Guest House" resonated for similar reasons: "Be grateful for whoever comes in, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond."

Zieghart notes that poetry has the ability to make us feel like we are not alone—like we are not the only one who feels a certain way. That is the power of poetry.