Poems for Patience 2017 with Yrsa Daley-Ward

The launch of Poems for Patience XIV, an exhibition of poems selected and introduced by Yrsa Daley-Ward, will take place at University Hospital, Galway on 28 April 2017. Each year, a poet who is appearing at Cúirt International Festival of Literature selects poetry suitable for display in waiting areas of University Hospital Galway and Merlin Park University Hospital.

The poet chooses 22 poems which are then framed and displayed in the Art Corridor, University Hospital, Galway during the festival. Poems for Patience is a collection of varied thoughtful poems by celebrated Irish and International poets. Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust is hopeful that the poetry disseminated throughout the hospitals will give people pause for reflection and space for hope in both those joyful celebratory moments as well as the all too often times of pain or worry.

All are welcome on the Arts Corridor of UHG on Friday 28 April at 11am for the launch of the fourteenth series of Poems for Patience by Yrsa Daley-Ward.

In conjunction with the Poems for Patience project, Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust has held an annual poetry competition since 2013. This year, there are joint winning entries: Lorna Shaughnessy’s poem, ‘The Dual Citizen’ and Marie Cadden’s poem, ‘In Praise of Denial’. Poet Kevin Higgins will introduce the 2017 winners and they will read their winning poems at the launch. The poems will be included in the Arts Trust’s Poems for Patience poetry collection.

Finally, this year’s Menu of Poems for Poetry Day Ireland on 27 April is titled You. Just You. Menu of Poems is a joint initiative by members of Arts and Health Co-ordinators Ireland. Poetry is circulated on meal trays in health settings nationally on Poetry Day. This project is kindly supported by Health Promotion and Improvement in the HSE and Poetry Ireland. Several hospitals and healthcare settings will be taking part in the initiative including the seven hospitals in Saolta University Healthcare Group. The project is co-ordinated by Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust.

Yrsa Daley-Ward is?a poet, actor and writer. Drawing heavily on her own experiences, Yrsa interweaves each discipline to fuse poetry with theatre, music and storytelling and has been writing for as long as she can remember. Her debut collection of poetry and prose, bone, is available on Amazon.

More details about the launch event and Cúirt International Festival of Literature here: http://www.cuirt.ie/event/poems-patience-launch-yrsa-daley-ward/

Poems for Patience is produced by Galway University Hospitals Arts Trust in association with Cúirt International Festival of Literature and supported by Poetry Ireland.