Tanka selected for Exhibition

I am delighted that my Tanka about a piece of sea-glass has been selected for The Colour of Poetry exhibition. Submitted Tanka had to be suitable for a hospital environment. Visual artists will use colour to express their emotional response to each poem selected for the exhibition and the two pieces - artwork and poem - will be exhibited together in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

Window on Wildlife (10): Biodiversity Countdown 2010

I only discovered very late in the day that NRAS has designated 2009 as 'The Year of Rheumatoid Arthritis'. It is a shame that so many months have gone by, but good nonetheless that there is this opportunity for heightened awareness and for the sharing of new initiatives.

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On quite a different note, but still on the subject of special years, I see from the RSPB/RSPB Cymru that the countdown has already begun for 2010, the UN International Year of Biodiversity.

If this all seems a bit far removed from the average person in the street, or even the birder in the hide, I wonder what ideas we could come up with to increase the impact of the initiative at a local level - or in a way that has relevance for those we encounter via the virtual world of the web.

• British Ecological Society
• Rare beetle found in North Wales
  

Body and soul / health and disease

I was fascinated to read an excellent entry about the use of poetry for defining health on the BMJ Group blog. Is health so very hard to define?

• Defining Health (Further reading from the BMJ Group Blog)
  

Poetry: a panacea?

Some days ago I blogged about The Island by Victoria Hislop, and mentioned the fact that the story revolves around leprosy. I highlighted the plight of those affected by the disease, and mentioned the special shoes supplied by The Leprosy Mission (TLM) for those with ulcerated feet.

As someone who regularly requires the services of UK NHS hospital orthotists (and as someone who enjoys poetry), I was very moved by a report in the Worthing Herald about the father of a wounded son in Zimbabwe, an orthotist in the UK, and a poem that crossed continents by telephone.