Hot chocolate and poetry

Looking for a fun break from the first week back to classes? Some hot chocolate and a bit of poetry might serve as the right “prescription.”

Poetry Prescription Day, to be held from 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. on Wednesday, January 9 at the King Student Life, is being jointly hosted by the King’s University College Student Council, the Write Place and the Accessibility, Counselling and Student Development office.

Everyone who attends the event will be given a hot chocolate and a poem, which can serve double-duty as a bookmark.

“Normally, hot chocolate and poetry don’t go together,” says Joanna Bedggood, Manager of Student Wellness, “But we thought it would be fun to put them together, as something to warm your heart and your belly.”

Bedggood says “often, we think of wellness and development from the perspective of offering counselling but “a small treat during the day can proactively help with wellness.”

While the first week back to classes can sometimes be daunting to students, Claire Linley, Vice-President of Student Affairs for the King’s University College Student Council, says Poetry Prescription Day “helps ground students and remind them to take it day-by-day.”

“I was looking for poems on the theme of winter,” says Dr. Vidya Natarajan, Writing Program Coordinator. She included a cultural mix of poets that was consistent with King’s students, including from Asia, North America and Europe. She also strove for a good mixture of female and male poets and poems of varying lengths.

Natarajan also looked for poems that used winter as a positive theme. “Many poems can be pretty bleak,” she notes, adding “many of the poems (included) use the image of winter to make people look at the beauty that is around them every day.”

For more information on Poetry Prescription Day, visit the event page.