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The Friday Poem

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Khadija Rouf

is a clinical psychologist and writer, with a growing interest in the arts and mental wellbeing. She has been working in the NHS since 1991. She also has an MA in Poetry from Manchester Metropolitan University. Her poetry has been published in Orbis, Six Seasons Review, Sarasvati and she is honoured to be included in the NHS poetry anthology, These Are The Hands, edited by Katie Amiel and Deborah Alma (2020). Her poem Tacet recently won joint second prize in the health professional’s category of The Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine, and her pamphlet House Work was published on International Women’s Day 2022 by Fair Acre Press and is available here.

    Two book covers, one yellow, one green.

    A commitment to honour women

    Khadija Rouf reviews A Coalition of Cheetahs by Doreen Gurrey and Spin by Laurie Bolger
    A painting on canvas showing a large yellow blob and some smaller blobs (also yellow) on a purple-blue background.

    You are not a fixed star in anybody’s sky

    Khadija Rouf reviews Into the Same Sound Twice by Zakia Carpenter-Hall (Seren, 2023)
    What does Khadija Rouf say?

    What does Khadija Rouf say?

    I've been writing poetry since I was a kid, being awarded a literary shield when I was 9 years old. I am not sure if that cemented the bug but I grew up adoring books ...
    Graphic print showing a woman's head and arm in pale colours. She is wearing a crown of flowers.

    of bodies / of light / of weightlessness

    Khadija Rouf reviews Antonyms for Burial by Ellora Sutton (Fourteen Poems, 2022)
    Mid blue background with the word Water in black sans serif text

    Seawort, marram grass, a length of rusted metal chain

    Khadija Rouf reviews Notes on Water by Amanda Dalton (Smith|Doorstop, 2022)
    Could be a woodcut, a black and white graphic of o woman's face, her chin is rising in her hand.

    A flower blossoming out of the hole in my face

    Khadija Rouf reviews Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head by Warsan Shire (Chatto & Windus with Flipped Eye, 2022)
    Three pamphlet covers arranged in a fan shape, one has a health worker in PPE on a blue background, one is yellow with black text running down the centre of the page and one is half white with purple text , the other half has what may be a woodcut in what may be ethnic patterns.

    Three pamphlets: Martin Figura, Leontia Flynn and Naush Sabah

    Khadija Rouf reviews My Name is Mercy by Martin Figura (Fair Acre, 2021), Hilary Menos reviews Nina Simone is Singing by Leontia Flynn (Mariscat Press, 2021), and Mat Riches reviews Litanies by Naush Sabah (Guillemot, 2021)
    Composite picture of Hippocrates, the Hippocratic oath and the Rod of Asclepius

    Do words help?

    Consultant Clinical Psychologist and poet Khadija Rouf explores how poetry can be used to heal trauma
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    14/09/2022

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