That is also why I hope that my poetry residency, although the hospital's first, will not also be its last. She mentions that another approach she could have taken is to identify those members of staff who would like to develop their own skills further and work with them so they could continue her work after she'd gone. She could also have led training sessions with the Play Workers so instead of just crayons and paper they could also work with words. With the help of poet David Hart he commissioned poems by over 50 contemporary poets, including Fleur Adcock, Andrew Motion, Sujata Bhatt, U.A. Fanthorpe, Carol Anne Duffy, Jackie Kay and Amryl Johnson. I hesitate to lay claims for poetry it cannot meet.
Poetry can make waiting rooms more human.
But it won't turn them into treatment rooms or rescue us from the predicaments of our time. The idea cannot be implemented by management directive. Because of the publicity garnered by his project, he has not had to 'bang on doors' but has been approached by professionals who often have a high level of enthusiasm. So far no publisher has charged copyright fees. Because local people are encouraged to produce their own work, he could see this project as a form of poetry therapy.