For a number of years, The Reader ran a Shared Reading group at the John Denmark Unit, which offers special mental health services to adult deaf people in Greater Manchester. Once a month, our Featured Poem will be taken from the list of those read at the John Denmark Unit and interpreted for BSL users by Tony Redshaw.

Today’s featured poem is read by The Reader’s Head of Publishing, Frances Macmillan.

Leisure 

WHAT is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

by W. H. Davies