Life has a habit of tripping us up at times, usually when we least expect (or can cope) with it. In The Emergency Poet, Deborah Alma (the Emergency Poet herself) presents a thoughtful and highly therapeutic selection of poems, designed to lift your mood, helping you relax and take stock.

We've all experienced moments when life feels overwhelming, and it can sometimes be difficult to see a path through troubled times. Organized into sections that follow a life through its challenges and hard times – from learning to be yourself, falling in and out of love and having children, through to ill-health, dying and coping with grief, as well as poems that serve as a tonic to lift the spirits – the anthology contains poems old and new, from world-renowned and lesser-known poets. What matters is that their words speak intimately, as though from one person to another, with grace and wisdom. They are soothing and carefully chosen to purge melancholy, provide hope and give courage in the most trying circumstances.

In this anthology of poems for every circumstance, Deborah Alma proves that poems really can be the perfect pick-me-ups for the soul.