So, it's a crying shame that education has sullied that wonderful world of poetry for many people, crushing them with the elitism and snobbery that so easily can become a club to hit you over the head, and label you stupid. But poetry isn't just for Radio 4 listeners and Oxford professors. Poetry is in the heart and soul of every human being. Like song, music, rhythm, poetry is your birthright.

A poem a day keeps the doctor away

When I'm feeling blue or despondent or need a more uplifting focus, I know of several poems I can go to, that will ease my mind and grace my soul. And like a favourite song, if you know the poem by heart, you can recite it quietly to yourself anywhere: in the supermarket queue, in the doctor's waiting room, whilst waiting for a train or a bus. Or if you can have the poem folded up and kept in your pocket, or play it on the iplayer... It's like taking a free pill with no adverse side effects.

I recently went away on a weekend conference, to find out more about a subject I wasn't very clued up on. Whenever we're learning something new, it can always bring up feelings of insecurity and nervousness, especially if there's a performance element attached to it, like giving a speech or presentation at the end of the course. I recited Mary Oliver's 'Wild Geese' to myself, to the clouds, to the grass, to the birds flying overhead. Over and over I declared it, I shouted it, I whispered it, I sang it, I danced it. (Nobody else was around of course.)

And althought the poem could be interpreted to be pertinent to many different issues, it was the first line of the poem that held my heart and imagination that weekend - 'You do no have to be good'. And it was like a wonderful pressure release valve. I don't have to be good at this. I have permission to be very mediocre at it. I have permission to get it wrong. I have permission to not understand it. I have permission to not be as good as the other people. AND THAT IS OK. THAT IS ABSOLUTELY FINE. Nothing horrible is going to happen to me. Time will tick on. The weekend will finish and nobody will remember the bits I remembered anyway.

Come find some poems to put in your pocket and be soothed and inspired by. Saturday 31st October. 10-4pm. £35 per person. Discounts available. Just contact Bethany Rivers (M.A.) to make a booking, or for more information. bethanyrivers77@hotmail.co.uk