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Person reading a book inside a bookshop with tall bookshelves filled with various titles, seen through a large window framed by green painted wood.

Stories and literature

idea

Reading books is not just a pleasure: it helps our minds to heal

Through my own struggles and in teaching bibliotherapy to students, I know that books can help to heal minds and hearts

by Peter Leyland

Black and white photograph of Emily Dickinson, inside a red velvet and gold frame.

Poetry

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Emily Dickinson and the creative ‘solitude of space’

For the poet Emily Dickinson, sequester was a feminist act of independence: it gave her mental and literal space to write

by Magdalena Ostas

Ancient Roman mosaic depicting three women and one man in a domestic scene with vibrant colours and detailed tesserae arrangement.

Poetry

idea

Love’s contradictions: Catullus on the agony of infatuation

Behold a man tortured on the rack, pulled apart by love and hate: how to understand Catullus’s best-known poem

by Armand D’Angour

Rituals and celebrations

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Mourning is a leap to freedom, inviting new dreams of living

Mourning is a leap in the dark, but not into darkness. It’s a leap to freedom that invites us to dream of living once more

by Alexander Hirsch

Sepia photograph of a man wearing a wide-brimmed hat, a bow tie and a long coat, looking at the camera.

Stories and literature

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There is nothing so deep as the gleaming surface of the aphorism

The aphorism has been a way to express strong feelings without placing emotional demands on the listener

by Noreen Masud

Poetry

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Learning Nahuatl, the flower song, and the poetics of life

Learning to think and feel in Nahuatl, the poetic language of my ancestors, broke me down and remade me

by David Bowles

Whirling dervishes spinning in traditional white garments with brown hats in a dimly lit setting.

Poetry

idea

Sufi love poetry is in vogue, but few grasp its radical meaning

The Sufi path to love in the poetry of Rumi and ‘Iraqi styles the body as a bridge to the divine in deeply erotic ways

by Matthew Thomas Miller

Ancient Greek vase depicting a ship crew, with a man tied to the mast, and winged creatures flying around.

Music

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Bach’s piano music is intimate precision and Homeric epic in one

A hero on a journey; a circular movement; a melancholy of homecoming: why Bach is an epic poet in the Homeric tradition

by Dan Moller

Marble relief sculpture depicting a group of bearded men and one woman in ancient Roman attire, with detailed facial expressions and gestures.

Friendship

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Horace’s lyrics of friendship offer hope to our troubled world

In the poetics of Horace, friendship is the best way to seek the good life even in the midst of crises beyond our control

by Stephanie McCarter

Hands holding an open book with unconventional text layout, words scattered across both pages forming abstract poetry. Dark background, lit by soft light.

Poetry

idea

The long poem is just right for our confounding, fractured age

The long poem is the right literary form for the unmanageable scale, the messy confusion and the epic ambivalence of our age

by Tess Somervell

Two men wearing hats, seated on a kerb, engaged in conversation. One is in overalls, the other in a short-sleeve shirt with suspenders. Background shows a brick building.

Civic life

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The power of Langston Hughes’s ‘melancholy citizenship’

Langston Hughes’s poetry offers a guide to the sort of melancholy citizenship that can help us weather democratic heartbreak

by Robert L Tsai

An older woman sings passionately into a microphone; there is a stone statue of historical figures in the background.

Poetry

idea

How poetry casts a spell through the rhythmic magic of metre

Poetry meets the raw needs of our most vulnerable selves in a primal way, with a simple tool: predictable, rhythmic metre

by Annie Finch