dementia (Remove filter)
Dementia
Dementia
I've escaped, I've walked out, from the strange mystery home
Im free to wander, the old places I'll roam
That man calls me brother, shouting my name
I'll shuffle away, what's his silly game
These keys in my pocket, now where is the car
How did I get here have a wandered to far
This fog in mind, the thoughts not firing
I'm sure to remember, shall I keep trying
Fred at the new...
Monday 15th April 2024 9:36 pm
The One you Used to Be
I want you to be
The one you used to be
Bright and fresh
And forever drinking tea
I want you back again
The one you used to be
Bright and bold
I want you back with me
It breaks my heart to see you now
Not the one you used to be
Now your thoughts are dulled with age
I wish I could set you free
I’ll always remember you as you were
The one you use...
Monday 24th April 2023 6:17 pm
I'm Me! Can't you see?
Do not forget who I was -
Who I am!
I awoke in the womb
Then moved to a pram!
I learned how to toddle
Then stumble
Then walk
Then, as my parents found out
I learned how to talk…
And talk!
I laughed in the sunshine
Made daisy chains too
Does anyone recognise
This person in you?
In teenage years
There came the drama
As my parents tried to...
Monday 13th March 2023 6:20 pm
Last Walk
Lizards scatter with small stones
as he trips up the mountain road,
kalderimes are too bumpy now.
He's been here before
a thousand feet above nut town
where crumbling churches
send peels of God down
to the sea.
He's been here before.
'Are there cicadas?.... I don't hear them.'
Higher...
White scree falls recall…
sodden sum...
Sunday 12th March 2023 9:30 pm
LADY WALKING
She walks a marathon distance each day,
passing people she has known for years
now unrecognizable, vague, like shadows.
She no longer engages with them,
struggling to distinguish between the faded faces.
She retraces each step, regardless of the weather -
always dressed for it. Back and forth.
The same handful of routes trodden in sequence.
The same street corner where she...
Monday 31st January 2022 10:16 am
Awaiting Bliss
I'm no longer me, she said
Later, when clouds passed by
Her mind went with them
She discovered it, sometime later
in a jar upon a dusty shelf
In a room unfamiliar
Where Time had nibbled away
at the glistening softness
to leave a part of it missing
But she wasn't to know
It was others who relayed it
In sympathetic stares
And, enforced, Mona Lisa smiles
...Friday 21st January 2022 12:43 pm
The Withered Vine
I watch her slowly
fall from grace
Her body still
Her mind displaced
New memories
no longer stay
they simply
just
drift a w a y
Like a mist around
a mountain old
that dissipates
as the dawn unfolds
She's there in body
but sparse of mind
Sometimes it's hard
to seek, and find
The vibrant woman
she...
Wednesday 26th May 2021 6:20 pm
Old As Love
strange things go through my head
my mind has been to distant places
days merge blindly into each other
lately I've lost a memory for faces
just how long have I been in here?
unlike my head my cock still works
wild fears roam like buffalo and yet
in my pants an untamed tiger lurks
the matron omits to cater for that
they seem past it most of my peers
yet my r...
Monday 17th May 2021 10:18 am
Skip Hire
Moved in, hired a skip
In here time stood still
Dealt with the daughter
Her dad gone, taken ill
Bathroom has lead pipes
Ceilings tobacco-stained
Window timbers rotten
Wet-rot well-engrained
Valuers took the quality
I'm left with foisty rugs
Sixties-style bric-a-brac
A zoo of domestic bugs
Fifty years in this semi
Kids married, wife dead,
Mak...
Friday 16th October 2020 11:00 am
Her Last Dance
The fading embers of her mind
Drift away to a long-ago time
To shrouded visions of some young girl
A time of wonder, a world to unfurl
Through fields she would dance humming a tune
Losing herself amidst the sweet scent of bloom
A fragrant-filled-feast for her lungs to consume
Within the wonderful freedom of nature's playroom
And as the shimmering Sun went down
She would dance throug...
Thursday 17th September 2020 12:17 pm
Forgetfulness
I may forget where I put my keys.
I may forget my phone.
I may forget what day it is.
I may forget my way home.
I will never forget sunsets over the ocean.
I will never forget blessings from above.
I will never forget soothing melodies.
I will never forget the love.
https://youtu.be/A69BertdSt4
Thursday 14th May 2020 1:53 pm
How Can I Tell You
How can I tell you that I love you?
I've said the words so many times; it's old hat to you.
I could quote Browning's poem of how she loved.
I'd say it's mine and mean every metaphor,
but you'd know she wrote it and you'd quote it.
I can write love poems just for you,
and every word I write is true,
though I'm not adept with metaphors
and don't use fancy words.
I can bring valentine...
Tuesday 24th March 2020 1:17 pm
Days of Dementia
Some days I look at the mantelpiece
Where the dust gets thicker and the cobwebs grow
I’m not sure what to do about it, you know.
Every day seems like the same day
And even though it’s sunny outside
Sometimes the clouds get in the way.
I watch the TV but I don’t always take it in
And the flickering colours and sounds
Are something I don’t want around.
Every...
Tuesday 18th June 2019 7:31 pm
Poem from One of Our New Collections
Less Than a Second
Less than a second
is the time it takes to fall in love.
That summer night
you walked out of the bright house
on to the dark deck
ready for the next day's wedding,
already celebrating every damn thing
anyone could think of,
laughter floating out of your pores
...
Friday 15th February 2019 8:40 pm
Lost at sea a battle against dementia and me
When i look into your eyes
I know your still there somewhere inside
And as each passing day
Goes by I know another part of your memory dies
But you won't remember the goodbyes and it's hard not to sit here and cry
Because your trapped inside
All The confusion the conclusion
That your drifting away
Well I know that ships don’t stay long at bay
And will soon be h...
Saturday 2nd February 2019 2:29 pm
THE SHIP THEY CALL "ALZHEIMER'S"
THE SHIP THEY CALL 'ALZHEIMER'S'
Hello my friend, welcome aboard
The ship they call 'Alzheimer's'
There's forty thousand under sixty-five
'Young onset' to 'Old timers'
It doesn't matter what you call it
The umbrella term's 'Dementia'
On the ship they call 'Alzheimer's'
Every day's a new adventure
Forget your hip replacement
And your osteoarthritis
They we...
Sunday 23rd September 2018 6:59 pm
Mama
She is long gone
So long I have to strain to hear her voice
Down the years
The last thing she said to me though
Clear as day
Like the sun through mists of dawn
‘Oh Janey’
An unexpected heartfelt sigh
Two words could not contain more depth
For she was lost to me long before
She left this earth
Or so I thought
Until the parting of the clouds
So brief
To gi...
Friday 1st June 2018 11:11 pm
The Last Night with Grandad.
The sun bows, outside the window
Clouds don a shade of black.
In a dimly lit side room,
Bulbs flicker. Hope turns its back.
Clock hands stack the seconds.
Eyelids straining with the fear
That in the hollow of my dreams
You’ll disappear
With the wave of a gloved hand
Under a pristine white sheet.
I trace the wrinkles, map the dimples
Painted upon your fading face.
Until sleep seduces me
...
Tuesday 27th June 2017 1:50 pm
Far Away
Maybe it’s those absent eyes,
gone searching for their better days,
that give away your hide and seek disguise
and tell me that you’re far away.
Are you back in New York,
chasing that old American dream
through the concrete foundations
on which you built our family's beam?
Or are you in Wigan’s Central park,
in Billy Boston’s Empire State,
watching Warriors paint the town red
then p...
Tuesday 6th September 2016 9:30 pm
Mother's Ramble
The wood shuddered and every eye
listened at the stair behind the wall
The door opened and slowly
a black felt hat followed by a long black coat
a black handbag and two black shoes
emerged turned and quietly closed the door
In her eighties she was still a mountain
crumbling now but not yet turned to dust
Lips quivered her moustache. She smiled
uncertainly at these strangers in her...
Saturday 5th December 2015 10:58 pm
White Field Green Sheep
White Field Green Sheep
he's gone wandering again yon down by the river
she think fear knows when the dog come back
with lead and red collar but no four fingered hand
the special is up calming her down nodding
whilst them as nosey agree to casually look 'afar
as they brave twice daily rain on the school run
he's gone yon again wandering lost int' a river
of landmarks and place names ...
Friday 13th March 2015 10:25 pm
Dexteram Patris
Dexteram Patris
Uncomfortable
seeing him that way,
and she,
ever supportive,
gently touching
his arm
for reassurance
but there is a failing,
something not the same,
although in looks
we are so similar.
The Prodigal returns
and sees his father,
straight of back
and stern of countenance,
falling to pieces.
The once proud frame -
busted
and she,
as beautiful as always,
...
Monday 2nd March 2015 7:12 pm
Re-Winding Memories
Re-Winding Memories
Beeching has been at work in her brain.
Branch lines are closing. No train
of thought as tracks disappear
in a tangled undergrowth where,
tearful, she loses hold of time.
"I must get back down the main line
before the wrong sort of memories
cause wheels to lose their grip.
I'm sliding back to nowhere fast.
Wasn’t I your mother once?"
...
Wednesday 4th December 2013 9:32 pm
Help me - help me please
The old lady shouted "Help me, please help me"
Sitting in her chair she was
wrapped in multicoloured shawl
refusing to elaborate
She couldn't see and couldn't hear
Refused to have her hearing help
Continued shouting "Help me help me"
"Won't somebody help me please"
Yet every time I tried to help her
Shouts vociferous and rude
Decrying all that...
Sunday 16th December 2012 1:49 am
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