While training to become a volunteer Reader Leader for The Reader charity, I was introduced to the poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider”, by Walt Whitman. The poet describes a spider, alone and silent, patiently sending out filaments of silk into the void from where it stands on a promontory – alone in space. The spider just needs one strand to connect, to form a bridge to help it reach across to somewhere else. In the second stanza the poet gives this idea to the soul of a person. I love making new connections – I am the sort of person who may attend a party knowing almost nobody and leave with five new friends, but I am also quite shy and it takes me a while to get going. I feel like that spider, casting out “filament, filament, filament”, and I love the feeling when it catches, when you make that connection – your soul encounters the soul of someone else – via literature, music, or even just talking about the weather or a nice glass of wine, and the first gentle connection is made. My favourite line is the ending: “Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold, / Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.” At first, you are struck by the loneliness of the spider, and its seemingly wasted efforts, but you gradually realise that it is an optimistic story – only one filament needs to connect, in order for a bridge to be formed, and then the spider/soul will not be lonely anymore.