Poetry and Strength ON TOUR in 2026

EADING POEMS BY PUBLISHED POETS AND TALKING ABOUT THEIR UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT STRENGTH IS AND CAN BE

The experiences of those who love poetry clearly suggest that reading the right poem at the right (or even the wrong) moment can leave us actually feeling stronger. 

Having the resolve to go back to a place in your childhood and then accepting what you find and do not find there, re-asserting your self-belief in the face of circumstances, knowing how to look upwards when the body begins to struggle, imagining being judged and keeping your head above water, and finding strength in nature, are just some of the moments that matter in these poems about strength.

The feelings and thoughts  poems can give us may be surprisingly like those we have ourselves or startlingly unlike. So poems can be mirrors or challengers. They can prove that when it comes to feeling strong or at a loss to find strength, we are not alone, and this proof can be left with us like a letter in our pocket that we have just opened and are relieved to have read.

There are poems – we have read them gratefully, marvelling – which talk directly to us, as though with us specifically in mind. Others thrill us with an otherness completely off our radar. 

This evening aims to create the friendly, informal and focused conditions for us to absorb the strength-giving powers of poetry, inner strength in reflection, outer strength in action.

Everyone can feel free to express their thoughts and feelings about the poems as they want to. A lot of ground gets covered, poems and readers come alive, and friends are quickly made of the poets and each other. 

Anna Akhmatova, Elizabeth Bishop, Charles Bukowski, John Clare, Patrick Creagh, C Day-Lewis, Emily Dickinson, W S Graham, Seamus Heaney, W E Henley, Vladimir Khodasevich, Edna St Vincent Millay, Marianne Moore, Jo Shapcott, Alfred Tennyson, R S Thomas, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Adam Zagajewski.