GLORIOUSLY US
Smashwords Edition | © 2011 Gloriously Us
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About Gloriously Us
Gloriously Us is a project entirely run by volunteers and supported by staff from the Aylesbury office of Alzheimer’s Society. Its aim is to work across Buckinghamshire, bringing the dementia community together through poetry. The dementia community includes those diagnosed with dementia, their carers and anyone else with a connection to dementia – such as careworkers, social service professionals and the medical profession. Gloriously Us has held a number of successful poetry workshops and also offers a poetry toolkit for use within the dementia community in return for a small donation.
For further information please visit: www.gloriouslyus.wordpress.com
All net proceeds will be donated to the Alzheimer's Society
(Charity Number 296645)
Introduction
When I was small, my grandmother would say; “You’re nothing without your memories.” She was a tiny, wire-tough, Yorkshire woman who had known two World Wars; given birth to two sons; worked in service at a stately home; lost four siblings to the Spanish ‘flu; baked a thousand fruit cakes; made a million pots of jam and lived so many adventures over the course of her long life that to me she was a one-woman factory of stories, anecdotes, recipes and word pictures. But when she died, aged 94, those memories had become fragmented and untrustworthy. Alzheimer’s had begun to steal away what she valued most. She didn’t always recognize me, didn’t always know who she was, or why she was no longer living in her own home. Even so, she stayed tough to the end, and on her good days was still able to tell me the stories of her childhood, and to enjoy the process of reliving some of her happiest memories. Some of those stories later found their way into my books; I could think of no better way to celebrate them.
The process of remembering is strangely therapeutic. Even if the memories are incomplete or untrustworthy, our stories and recollections are how we try to define ourselves, to make sense of our lives, and we all have a deep-rooted instinct to pass them on to the next generation. This book is a moving testimony to the power of memory, and I trust that in its pages, you will find, as I did, an inspiration and a message of hope. Some things are worth remembering.
Joanne Harris
Joanne Harris is an award-winning writer whose books are published in over 40 countries. To find out more about her work, please visit: http://www.joanne-harris.co.uk
A Haiku
all of her photographs…
each face fades
into the
crowd
Graham Duff
CONTENTS
Cornish Lines On Spoons and Such
Hodgett Extinguished With A Mighty Squirt
To My Mother with Alzheimer’s
I'm
holding on for both of us, as slowly you forget,
I'm memorizing
pieces of the life that lingers yet.
It doesn't matter that one
day you see me as your mum
And then your older Sister. It just
matters I hold on.
Despite the wiping of your mind I know
you'll start again
When you are in our Saviour's world where there
is no more pain.
Although you ask the questions and the answers
slip away
I know there are far better things to grasp that final
day.
I'm holding on for both of us when we've enjoyed some
time
Just going out and shopping when the weather has been
fine,
And eating something tasty that has made your smile so
bright,
For you will have forgotten I was even here by
night.
I've wondered if it's worth it, all the work that I
must do
But I believe somewhere inside it's benefiting
you.
Because although you can't recall the things you did
today
Perhaps you'll just feel safer or more cherished in some
way.
So I am holding on despite the times I want to go
Or
scream because you've asked me things a thousand times or so,
And
I just want to be alone without you by my side,
But I know I'd be
devastated if, alone, you died.
So hold my hand more tightly
mum, for I won't go away
And I'll remember for you all the things
you want to say,
And you don't have to worry about all those
passing things,
The bills, the stress of living life inevitably
brings.
It's all been taken care of, I can handle it for
you
Despite the fact you aren't aware of anything I do,
Just
like when I was little and you did the same for me,
I only want
you to feel loved till Jesus sets you free,
And though you're
losing who you are, and all the years long past,
It's all there
waiting for you when you take God's hand at last,
And I'll stop
holding on that day and let you go alone,
Because the panic will
have gone, for you'll be going Home.
And next time that I see
you, you will smile and know my name
And you'll hold me forever
where confusion doesn't reign.
AKM
John Cameron was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Writing poetry was one of the few pleasures he was able to enjoy during the progress of the condition. John wrote for the pure pleasure of playing with words.
Poem
Latin for ‘out of the mind’,
‘de mentis’
might sound so unkind.
Should it make you feel weak
Or
unwilling to speak
Care not, the words will unwind.
Malady
as old as the hills, not bettered nor undone by pills;
You may
curse out loud
And shoot round and round
The ear is all that it
fills
So have body and brain gone to war?
I doubt it but
I’m really not sure.
I hold on to hope, indeed hope, hold and
cling,
In case Lady Fortune will come on and sing.
‘Dementia’,
the letters number eight,
The amount that occurs in ‘to
create’,
Tis something to hum as the
Listener goes numb,
Alice’s rabbit is late for
an-
Oh-so-important date.
John Cameron
Warhol
Your fifteen minutes was wrong;
I’ve that number in
month, going strong.
Everyone has a catch,
We’re from the
same batch,
So I cannot indefinitely prolong.
John Cameron
Limericks
My limericks come with a warning,
Remember that when
you’re yawning
Good poets would know it,
Be too polite to
show it,
Unlike theirs mine don’t improve by morning.
They
tend to come by impulsion,
Notwithstanding the risk of
revulsion.
They come in all sizes,
As do virtues and vices,
But
come with the sureness of propulsion.