Langley resident and poet Judith Adams has been selected again to serve on Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau.

She will give presentations around the state at libraries, museums and cultural centers for the next two years in a talk titled, “The Poetic Apothecary: Poems for Healing and Comfort.”

“Judith is one of 33 speakers chosen for the 2019-2020 Speakers Bureau,” said Hannah Schwendeman, Humanities Washington program manager and communications coordinator. “This is her second term as she also served as a speaker from 2017-2018.”

The Speakers Bureau is a statewide program that selects a variety of historians, scientists, scholars, writers and activists chosen for their expertise and their ability to inspire discussion with people of all ages and backgrounds.

Humanities Washington, a nonprofit affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, hosts the free talks with a wide range of organizations. It aims to spark conversation on history, politics, music, philosophy, and everything in between.

For the past two years, Adams’ presentations have addressed bringing poetry back into the lives of adults who often lose the childhood delight of a poem’s stories, humor, absurdity and rhyming cadences.

Her next series focuses on poetry’s restorative powers. She plans to recite and explore poems that help people understand grief, fear, sadness and loss.

“My new talk’s emphasis is about how poetry can be a significant part of our lives, how it can be a companion through the ups and downs of living,” she said. ” I will show that there is a poem that can be prescribed for every human emotion.”

Adams said she hopes to get into as many schools as possible during 2019-2020.

“I would like students to have a chance to share and to know that poetry is accessible to all and that there is nothing lofty or remote about poetry,” she said. “It’s really quite the reverse.”

An English-born poet who has lived in the United States since 1976, Adams has published four books of poetry, conducted poetry workshops, recorded several albums of her work and published her poems in magazines and anthologies.

She’s held readings at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, the Frye Art Museum and Third Place Books.

For more information go to www.humanities.org/program/speakers-bureau.