Our minds need respite. They need distraction but not mindless, not trash. They need feeding. We all know this. We all forget it.

There have been many times I have been stuck in the deep, cloying pool of stress or simply stuck on a problem I cannot solve. The resolution has most often been to do something else. Something that engages the mind differently. This frees your subconscious to solve the issues for you. So often after such a period, the solution presents itself.

Many great thinkers and creatives have employed this method. Both Darwin and Einstein for example took walks in the country and let their minds be engorged with its beauty. For others, it has been music.

I present here another option. Poetry. A whole collection in fact – one for each day of the year. 

So when you’re stuck, or just in a fuzz that you need to shake – pick up “A Spring of Dreams”, read one poem – contemplate it. Give your mind the break it deserves.

Three hundred and sixty-five poems in all shapes and sizes, sprung from dreams and emotion. Published day after day for a year. There are haiku, sonnets, katauta, lanturnes and many other forms – including free form. The moods are as varied as the forms and often reflect my mood on the day. There is sadness and grief, joy and love.

If nothing else – these can provide a small moment in everyone’s stressful lives to stop and contemplate the world in a different way.