YouSaid · the spoken record

William Sieghart

lines on the record: 31
first: 2023-11-27
most recent: 2023-11-27
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“All this picks up, I think, on what Sarah was saying earlier on, and she has other things to say about it. It comes in the category that I've put near. We're really, really stressed and anxious. And in the 10 years I've been listening to people's problems the last two years, the quality, if that's the right word, of anxiety has increased exponentially. And it's obviously because of Brexit and Trump's and climate extinction and all kinds of things, but we should be wary because if we're this disturbed as adults, just imagine what it's like to be 14. Level of anxiety, the level of unkindness in the world, of incivility, uncivility, whatever the right word is, is quite startling. And so I chose this wonderful poem by Naomi, because I think we all need it.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've had the delightful experience of rereading a poem recently and actually learning it off by heart which a poem I've been reading all my life and it was my mum's favourite poem and she died earlier this year and it's called The Four Quartets and when I first tried to read it as a teenager I could make no sense of it at all and as I got older and older I would reread it every few years and get something different from it. I've now committed to myself I'm going to learn it off by heart and I'm halfway through it. It's quite a long poem. But by inhabiting this poem I've had the most extraordinary set of revelations about life and the meaning of life and if I'd read that poem at 20 or 30 it would have not made any sense to me.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, that's an interesting question. I think the point is that if you have experienced what the poet has experienced, it'll help you make sense of what you've been through. And I suppose rather like people talk about the wisdom of age, which is absolute rubbish, by the way. No wisdom of age, but the more you experience, to some extent, the more you can refer and make sense of it.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think there are lots of poems for anxiety. There's one in particular I would like to read, and I don't have it in front of me, and my computer is not turned on, but I do have an anxiety poem in this book, and I just need to find it to give me a tick. But I would really recommend the piece of wild things, which is a wonderful poem by Wendell Berry, all about When I lie awake at night and worry about what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the woodrake rests in his beauty by the water, and the great heron sings. And I rest in the comfort of stars and starlight. And I don't know it by heart.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Martha is going to tell you because the poem she's written is just about that question. To be 12. I think they fuck you up. Your mum and dad's a good one. You're the dad.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But the key to Philip Larkin and why he, I think, was the greatest poet of the last half of the 20th century perhaps, is Philip Larkin grabs the moments that we all want to push away from our psyches and he holds on to them and he explores them in completely accessible universal language without showing off and saying I'm a gifted poet and let me give you elegant variation. And if you read his poetry there's poetry about every single thing we're frightened of. But he explores it and makes it holy and utterly accessible.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“See a wild white face that overtops red stretcher blankets momently. it is carried in and stowed In sense the solving emptiness lies just under all we do. For a second Get it So permanent and blank and true. Fastened doors recede poor soul they whisper at their own distress For borne away in deadened air may go the sudden shut of loss round something nearly at an end, and what cohered in it across the years the unique random blend of families and fashions There at last begin to loosen. Far from the exchange of love to lie unreachable inside a room that traffic parts to let go by. Brings closer what is left to come Induls to distance All”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But that was the beginning for me, and I've included in this book, and Dominic will now read you this wonderful poem. One thing to say that's written in the 1950s, so the ambulances were grey, Dominic.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This extraordinary and shocking experience was that I had blood on my hands. And I had learnt by heart a poem recently called Ambulances by Philip Larkin, in which he talks about that moment when you're standing in your own street and an ambulance comes and takes one of your next door neighbours away probably for the last time. And you sense the solving emptiness that lies just under everything you do. And for a moment get it whole, so permanent and blank and true. And those lines and the very large gin and tonic I ordered in the pub helped me process at the time Something really, really shocking, and in retrospect, I think, to use a modern term, I was self-medicating with poetry”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Okay, so the next poem is in a way, for me where the pharmacy began, actually. I was 23 years old and I was attempting to cross the Cromwell Road and the light was green and the traffic was whizzing by and the light turned, finally turned to red, and the man standing next to me walked into the road and a car jumped the lights and hit him. And I can still 35 years on hear and see what was at the time the most shocking thing that had ever happened to me in my life. And luckily in the crowd, somebody ran down to help this man and grabbed me to help him and he was a first aider. And between us we gave this man the kiss of life and amazingly a pulse returned an ambulance, took him away, the police took our statements, and in no time I was standing in the same point in the Cromwell Road with the traffic flowing. And the only evidence I had of”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I'm down and out trying to strive, struggle, make their way in a racist world, in a world that had no hope to them. And she said to them, say to them. Say to the downkeepers, the sun slappers, the harmony hushers. Even if you are not ready for day, it cannot always be night. You will be right, for that is the hard home run. Live not for battles won. Live not for the end of the song. Live in the along the Swindoline Brooks. Well, that's poetry. Thank you very much. We do have two more poems. So that's you now.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think this is me now before we get to our last poem. I wanted to bring this sort of tiny speech by a poet called Gwendolyn Brooks. And Gwendolyn Brooks was the poet of my community, Southside Chicago, the African American community. She was the first African-American to the Pulitzer Prize in poetry, and she was the poet laureate of the state of Illinois, and I grew up reading Gwendolen Brooks and hearing Gwendolen Brooks. She always would go around the community to halls, to schools, and talk to the kids. And she had in her body and in her voice the poetic dimension. There was nothing that came out of her mouth that was in poetry. And this is a tiny speech, she said to a bunch of kids who were down.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Next work is wonderful poem by one of the most exciting young poets in the world today. She's called Kate Tempest, and I'm sure many of you have seen her or heard her perform or read her wonderful poetry. And this is an extension in a way of what Margaret Atwood was saying about non-attachment, about letting go, not trying to hold on to things. Again, another one of the problems that we perhaps suffer for more and more in the modern world. And Martha is now going to read to you the point by Kate Tempest.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I might be in trouble, but I think the point is, as I said before, that poetry is all around us in lots of interesting forms, and it doesn't have to have to have the P in front of it to make it a poem.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I think it goes back to what you said at the beginning about what is a poem. I have used in these books quite often words from songs, a good example will be a wonderful musical written called Carousel in which there are the words walk on through the rain and you'll never walk alone, you'll never walk alone. I think that rings a bell with you out there. You'll hear it chanted at Anfield football ground. If I stood outside Anfield on a Saturday afternoon and said, I love that poem you chanted.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They came by Pastor Martin Nimuller. First they came for the communists I did not speak out I was not a communist. Then they came for the Socialists. I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. They came for the trade unionists. I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews. I did not speak out As I was not a Jew. Then they came for me And there was no one left. Speak out for me.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Them instead Them the joy of tasting. And Them how to cry Pets and people die. Show them the infinite pleasure The touch of a hand. and make the ordinary come alive for them. Extraordinary. Take care of itself”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, this is, you're absolutely right. This is a poem. Which I'm very fond of because we live in a world of extremely pushy parenting. I think parents have higher expectations of their children than they ever did in a time where, judging by the children's anxieties I listen to, life is harder than it has ever been. And this poem really tells parents about what they should be really focused on Which is teaching their children How to love, how to appreciate simple pleasures, how to take care of themselves physically and spiritually. And once you've mastered all those things, the extraordinary will take care of themselves. And this is Dom.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“This is a wonderful poem by Margaret Atwood. And when I found this, I hadn't realized she was a poet. I always thought of her as a worldwide. She was a poet first. But this is a wonderful and really important object lesson in life about the myth of ownership.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Good person to share life with, but at heart, my problem is I'm Muslim and I'm gay and I don't feel like I can be both. And I said, but there's this Sufi mystic Hafiz who wrote 700 years ago the most important Muslim poet of all time and he wrote, it happens all the time in heaven. And one day it'll happen again on earth. That men and women who are married and men and men who are lovers and women and women who give each other light will get down on bended knee with tears in their eyes and say to their loved one How can I be more loving to you? How can I be more kind? And he got up Streaming tears gave me a big hug. And I'm delighted to say he is now dating. Great, it's a great story”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think what's so intriguing for me that when I went through the process of researching the poems for both of these books that Rumi and Hafez, who wrote six or seven hundred years ago, pop up all the time and talking to Iranian people, they'll tell you that in every household there's a book of Hafiz's poetry, and that's their poetry pharmacy. And last year I was opening a kind of co-working building and listening to everybody who works there's problems. Halfway through A security guard came to me and he said, your 330 is cancelled. And I said, that's fine. And he said, can I take their place? And I said, of course, come and sit down. What's troubling you? And he said, well, I'm 31. And I came out when I was 24, but I still haven't had a relationship yet. And I said, that's incredibly sad. What do you put it down to? What do you think this is all about? And he said, you know, I'm upbeat and I'm positive and I'm being...”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Here is a relationship booster. Is guaranteed to work Every time your spouse or lover says something stupid Your eyes light up If you just heard something brilliant.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The expression mansplaining comes up quite a lot in life, doesn't it? I think that Wendy Cope is my favourite modern poet for really dealing with men. I don't know if you know that famous poem Two Cures for Love, which goes, one, don't see him, don't phone or write a letter to the easy way. Get to know him better. This is a lovely poem about Manspl”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, many people come and talk to me about their romantic dilemmas. Should I, shouldn't I? Is he the right one? Is she the right one? I know I'm humbled and embarrassed by it. I think one of the problems in the modern world as well is that we live in an increasingly anxious world about what might happen rather than what has happened. It's partly dominated by headlines, our newspapers and our tellies are filled with anxiety about what hasn't happened, but what might happen. And what I love about this poem is this gives you the right to go and make a very big mistake”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, in a similar genre, a lot of people come and tell me, but mostly women, but that. The victims of men denigrating what men call their femininity. And by extension their attractiveness. And I've seen some of the strongest women I've met react like this. And my first reaction is why put the power in their hands? It's not for them, whoever they may be, to judge how you express your femininity. You're the expert in who you are, not them.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It is beautiful, and I think in part it's because of something deeper as well, which is that we don't go to commune together on a Sunday or a Saturday anymore in churches and mosques and synagogues in the way in which people used to 50 years ago. And we've lost touch with some kind of liturgical shared element in our lives. And the canon of poetry has become a kind of secular liturgy. And people are finding things in poetry and sharing them with each other, saying, this is how I feel. Something expressed rather more elegantly than I can express myself, but I have a real sense of complicity with this. And it makes me feel understood. And I think what's so exciting in a poem when it happens is it means I'm not mad. I'm not alone. And what's more, if somebody wrote this 700 years ago, this is normal how I feel. And Sarah said this very troubling, difficult world in which we live in today.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Very hard to get hold of any culture if you didn't live in a big city. Come the 1950s and poetry suddenly got subsumed into different other art forms. People will tell you Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan of the poets. Poets became copywriters in advertising. They wrote jingles on the radio and everything else. Poetry is alive and well, but the combination of rap and social media means it's exploding and it's most exciting.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It's really exciting because poetry sales, book sales have gone up 50% in the last three years. And it's the fastest growing literary art form. And the reason is a combination of rap music and social media. The poetry world was tied up for a long time by half a dozen middle-aged middle class men who were the poetry editors of favor and favor and chatto and all these various poetry publishers. And they shared pretty much the same views as what a good poem was. When Instagram came along, it allowed all kinds of people of different generations to put their stuff out there, build millions of followers in rupee carrots case, and suddenly the publishers were chasing people like her and saying, I want to publish your work. And she's now the best-selling poet of all time. It's really exciting. And in some ways, poetry in the 19th century was a big popular thing when Tennyson's latest collection came out, people queued for it. But then there was no competition.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Overwhelming, humbling. And what I realized as I sat in that tent was that pretty quickly I needed a box of Kleenex, not for myself, but for people coming in. And I suddenly realized that Jenny was really onto something, that we need poetry in life. We want to turn to poetry because it gives us a sense of complicity with how we feel, often when we're feeling really troubled, but we don't know where to look. And hence we look in the traditional places for poems for grief or love or whatever, but actually this is a bigger picture. We find complicity in poetry. Poetry has almost become like the secular liturgy. It's become where we look for both spiritual and emotional support and understanding.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But one day in 2012, when the Olympics were happening, I was invited down by somebody who was programming the Port Elliott Literary Festival, Jenny Dyson, and she said, you're always sending me poems to cheer me up when my dad died and I got divorced and all that. I'm setting you up at this festival in a tent with a shrinks couch, a chair, a prescription pad. You must photocopy every poem you can think of that might help people. And I'm going to book people in for 10, 15, 20 minutes sessions to come and tell you their worries. And I went, oh, okay. I thought I'd do it for an hour. And six hours later with a very full bladder, there was still a queue waiting around the tent. And I realized having spent a lifetime trying to promote poetry, that she'd come up with the most extraordinary idea.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, delightfully in a way, the whole thing happened by mistake, which is how the best things in life happen, I suppose. I spent a lifetime trying to get poetry out of poetry corner with National Poetry Day and things, and maybe making the corner teeny bit.”
2023-11-27 · Intelligence Squared · The Poetry Pharmacy Returns with William Sieghart · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT