Poetry can stir memories in those with dementia

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Wisconson State Journal

Poetry touches a deep place in the human psyche — and that might be what makes Alzheimer's Poetry Day work.

"With dementia, you might have people who might not recognize a grandchild who comes to visit," said Gary Glazner, a Brooklyn-based poet and founder of the national Alzheimer's Poetry Project. "But through doing poems with them, you can have this kind of connection with them that is so strong and so powerful. As our population ages, it's going to be more and more needed."
Glazner developed the Alzheimer's Poetry Project after working with dementia patients in 1997 in Northern California.
"I didn't know very much about Alzheimer's or dementia, but I hit upon the idea of using classic poems that they might have learned as kids," he said.

"In a workshop, the real moment of inspiration for me came from a man who was in the group. His head was down, he wasn't participating at all, and I would say he was completely unaware of his surroundings. I said a line from a Longfellow poem: ‘I shot an arrow in the air.' The man's eyes popped open and he said, ‘It fell to earth; I know not where.'
"And suddenly he was participating, he was back with us. It was a real heartfelt moment for me as a poet," he said.
Glazner has been conducting poetry workshops at assisted-living and adult day care centers in Wisconsin for the past two years through a grant from the Helen Bader Foundation in Milwaukee.