The poetry of recovery: how Thomas reclaimed his life after a stroke

If there was a task to do, he'd get it done.

"I remember the first time I peeled a potato - it took about half an hour," Thomas said, with a laugh.

But what Thomas didn't count on was how poetry - and nature - would play such a big part in his recovery.

So much so he's written a book about his experience - Let's Go for a Walk: Rebuilding body, mind and spirit after a stroke - which is being launched at The Book Cow in Kingston at 6pm on Thursday.

"Apart from the physical exercise, definitely time in nature, walking, gardening, forest bathing, sit spotting all those things [helped me]," Thomas said.

"And writing poetry was my way of comprehending what the hell had happened to me - in a positive kind of way."

Thomas, now 68, hopes readers find "inspiration and encouragement" from his book.

"That they tap into their own inner strength - because we all have it," he said.

A former public servant who made cat enclosures in his latter years, Thomas suffered a stroke in May, 2023 while doing a relatively minor job.

He was 66 and otherwise in good health. Someone who'd run marathons when he was younger.

"The stats for men are that 75 per cent of men are over the age of 65 when they suffer a stroke. I didn't wait long," he said, with typical wry humour.

Thomas had experienced a "weird, funny sensation, sort of a dizziness", slurred speech and heavy arms before his stroke.

His wife Slobodanka "Bobby" got him to the Calvary Public (now North Canberra) Hospital where he was found to have lost all function on the right side of his body.

He was "in shock and disbelief".

"The next day or the day after the physio came to me and said, 'Let's go for a walk'," Thomas said, his voice breaking.

"And that still hits me."

Because in his state of bewilderment, someone was there to help. The physiotherapist shuffled him to a treadmill, put him in a harness and that walk back to health began.

When Thomas was transferred to the University of Canberra Hospital in Bruce, which specialises in rehabilitation and recovery, he continued his intense physical exercises.

"I had three goals - I didn't think very much about them, they just came to me," he said.

"I wanted to go home. And I wanted to walk out of here. And I wanted to feed myself with a spoon with my right hand."

By chance, the UC Hospital was also piloting a program that encouraged patients to write poetry to help them express what they were feeling about their recovery - the frustrations, the fears, the triumphs, the everything.

Thomas loved it. He started by using one finger to punch words into his phone.

"It's not about grammar, spelling, syntax, writing pure perfect prose," he said.

"It was to express that emotion. And the amazing thing about it is that words arise. Just something happens. Because you need to express this. We couldn't dance, we couldn't sing but we could write."

The poetry program was presented by UC academic and poet Owen Bullock and Canberra Health Services curator of arts and health Jenny McFarlane.

Dr McFarlane said it was an example of how Canberra Health Services wanted to treat "the whole person".

An article about the poetry program by Mr Bullock and Dr McFarlane was published in the British Medical Journal and the Canberra Hospital Foundation is looking at ways to make it a full-time offering for patients.

"It's fairly impressive academic work. There's a lot of research out there about just how important the arts are to support people's wellbeing and give people the courage to keep going," Dr McFarlane said.

Thomas' book starts with emails his wife Bobby sent to friends and family explaining what had happened to him.

It also includes sketches Bobby did while Thomas was doing his rehab at the hospital, detailing what she saw, often with a sense of the ridiculous.

Thomas then takes over the story, including poems he wrote during the program.

Dr McFarlane said Let's Go for a Walk was important as a story about stroke recovery but was something more than that.

"This is a book about the triumph of the human spirit," she said.