101 Poems to Keep You Sane : Emergency Rations for the Seriously Stressed

by Daisy Goodwin

A self-help poetry anthology to smooth out the stresses and woes of adult life! Is your way of life doing serious damage to your mental health? Are you spending more time in meetings and traffic jams than you are in bed? Does everyone around you appear to be richer, happier and have thinner thighs? Have you started reading the lonely-hearts column for more than a good laugh? Are you spending more on scented candles than on food? If any of the above sounds familiar then you need '101 Poems To Keep You Sane', a collection of poems to help you weather a whole range of threats to your sanity, from things that merely ruffle the calm surface of life -- under headings such as 'Domestic Goddess of Anxiety' and 'Flatpack Frenzy' (for anyone who has shopped at Ikea) -- to the storms and hurricanes of heartbreak and despair in the 'Getting Over It' and 'Emotional Rescue' sections. With poetic offerings from writers as diverse as John Dryden to Maya Angelou, this book is essential for anyone who wants to put their life back in perspective.

Genres: Poetry

Hardcover

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

DAISY GOODWIN, a Harkness scholar who attended Columbia University’s film school after earning a degree in history at Cambridge University, is a leading television producer in the U.K. Her poetry anthologies, including 101 Poems That Could Save Your Life, have introduced many new readers to the pleasures of poetry, and she was Chair of the judging panel of the 2010 Orange Prize for Fiction. That was the year she published her first novel the American Heiress ( My Last Duchess in UK) , followed by The Fortune Hunter and now Victoria. She has also created VICTORIA the PBS/ITV series which starts in January. She has three dogs, two dogs, and one husband.

Reviews

[Jade Moore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this book up because I wanted to discover some new and interesting poems, and I did find some in here. Some poems were more memorable than others, but for a lot of them I found them amusing, and as a whole I found it to be a very good selection of poems to accommodate various situations that we all come across in life.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a lovely light book of poetry formed around a theme of things that might cause stress. There are things to laugh at, things to make you sad or cry. I loved the range of poetry - some of my favourite poets and others I had never heard of. It was a shame that the book is so short and the each section only contained 3-4 poems. I’d probably have liked fewer sections but a greater depth. But then this not what this book is about!

[Suni · Rating 4 out of 5]

the perfect mix of millennial humour from Goodwin's descriptions before each section and literary goodness that makes the world go round. the ultimate collection of comfort that I did not realise I needed right now. unfortunately, I don't engage with poetry as much as I should, but this book has only given me reason to!

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Especially the sections on being a parent and losing someone. Less ‘famous poems’ than some of her other collections.

Recommend 😊

[Axe Mungersdorf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just completely loved that

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some are funny and others are seriously depressing.

[Claudia · Rating 2 out of 5]

i didn't read all the poems, but some of them were ok. it had my favourite poem in though, so that was a good thing for me :)

[Emma]

has some really funny and uplifting poems to make you smile!