A consoling, encouraging and inspiring companion for the seriously or chronically ill. The poems in this anthology - chosen by sufferers themselves - powerfully respond to the deepest and most private thoughts and feelings that commonly preoccupy the seriously ill but are difficult for most of us to articulate or even recognise. Among them also are poems of quietness and gratitude, prayers, and spiritual verse. Written by poets both well known and unknown during their own times of crisis and overwhelming emotion, these poems offer consolation by confirming the and validating the reader's experience of illness, by illuminating the mind with a rich tapestry of visual and emotional imagery, and by opening up new ways of seeing the world and understanding one's place within it. Above all, the poems have been chosen for their soothing qualities, for the balm of harmonious language and rhythmic coherence that can begin to heal the trauma caused by illness.