Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

I was sitting with 2 residents in an Alzheimer’s Unit.
“Let’s write a haiku poem. Look out the window at all the snow. What do you think of the snow? How does it make you feel? What does it remind you of?”
I received feedback: Ice cream, cold, have to wear a coat, kinda wet, falling ice, snowball, winter, dead.
“What would you compare it to?”
My sister sleeping.
“Is the snow sleeping?”
Yes
It also has energy
“For what?”
To make the grass grow in the spring.

I began writing their words in the 5 syllables, then 7 syllables, then 5 syllables. Here is our Haiku poem.
Peaceful snow sleeping
Watering seeds for Spring
Waiting for flowers.
We got the paints out and painted flowers coming out of the snow.

Ted is 86 and loves landscape paintings.
“I could never do one,” he said.
“Let’s try,” I said.

We watched as the water and colors spread across the page forming mountains and meadows with the wave of his hand. When it was finished, I held it up. He thought it needed a horse and asked if I would put one in it. I did just that and he asked for some more horses.

“Let’s write a poem about this picture. You come up with a sentence.”

He came up with a sentence about the sunset and we brainstormed on words that rhymed with “west”. We ended up with a 4 line poem.

The sun is setting in the west.
It is going down behind the crest.
A horse is following the rest.
“Wait for me” the stallion says.

David is bedridden. He sees himself in the shadows.  His emotions and wisdom emerge when he speaks in creative phrases or paints with one hand.  Creative arts and the challenge to use the imagination bring forth freedom that surpasses the body.  David can be “who he is” in spite of not having the physical capabilities to express the depths of the soul.  So much can be expressed not only with words that come out in poetry, but with color, and brushstrokes, and even the beat of a drum!

Five dementia residents were circled around me. I read some poetry and stopped on the rhyming lines to see if they could fill in the words. A couple of them blurted the words out easily. The others enjoyed the rhythm and sounds. “Let’s write our own rhyming poem,” I said. Let’s come up with a topic. Out of the blue, Eva leaned over to me and said “Did you know that I didn’t used to wear shoes. I couldn’t because my feet would swell.” I grabbed at the line and wrote it down. “ Let’s try to come up with a rhyming line,” I said. We ended up going around the circle talking about what each person liked or didn’t like to wear. It was personal and stimulating. They loved it.

A Poem about Clothes

Eva couldn’t at one time wear shoes.
Her feet would swell… what could she do?
She cannot wear a woolen sweater.
She wears cotton instead… that’s even better.
Ann likes to wear shirts that are red.
“I won’t wear black” she said, shaking her head.
Mary likes to wear a white sweater
And wearing blue is even better.
Rosie doesn’t like to wear scratchy clothes.
It causes itching on skin and nose.
Thelma likes wearing a plain old dress.
A bright and pretty dress… oh yes!

Doing poetry together with the aging is one of the best treats in my week. “This was a wonderful time.” I have heard many say that as they leave our poetry groups. One day, we wrote several Haiku poems. We chose nature themes and brainstormed on phrases. Then we counted the 5-7-5 beat (syllables), narrowing it down to the most picturesque language. We then painted watercolor pictures to go with the poems.