Sitting in the doctor’s surgery last week waiting for a routine appointment my gaze ran past the usual tatty old magazines and medical leaflets and landed upon this little delight.

Poems in the waiting room is ‘a brilliant tiny charity’ that produces pamphlets containing a selection of lovely poems providing uplifting messages of positivity and hope at what can be an anxious and distressing time.

I think this is such a fabulous project and was a very welcome distraction for me; someone who can feel ill just by the mere act of sitting in a doctor’s waiting room! The card I picked up included poems from Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy, as well as more recent poets and looking at the charity’s website it seems they are open to submissions for inclusion in these cards if you are a budding poet.

You can find out more about the charity and the wonderful work they do here.

All the poems in the card I picked up were a joy to read, but one in particular struck a chord with me. I would agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment in these words.

Good Books

Good books are friendly things to own.
If you are busy they will wait.
They will not call you on the phone
Or wake you if the hour is late.
They stand together row by row,
Upon the low shelf or the high.
But if you’re lonesome this you know:
You have a friend or two nearby.

The fellowship of books is real.
They’re never noisy when you’re still.
They won’t disturb you at your meal.
They’ll comfort you when you are ill.
The lonesome hours they’ll always share.
When slighted they will not complain.
And though for them you’ve ceased to care
Your constant friends they’ll still remain.

Good books your faults will never see
Or tell about them round the town.
If you would have their company
You merely have to take them down.
They’ll help you pass the time away,
They’ll counsel give if that you need.
He has true friends for night and day
Who has a few good books to read.

Edgar Guest (1881-1959)