Turning to Stories–Alzheimer's Patients Improve Interaction

Technorati Tags: Alzheimer's disease,dementia,story telling

First off, I want to acknowledge NPR for this post but also say a few words in general about their value in the community. NPR fills a hole in the media landscape that I really don’t see anyone else really touching, besides a higher quality of journalism then what we get from  the rest of the media gene pool. With the decline in network television and the sensationalism of Cable we have lost something that those in their in their 30’s and under really have never experienced. Yes, modern times have given us much progress, but we’ve paid a price in other ways. But I deviate from this post.

What I really want to say is that I was impressed with the NPR story about a program in Seattle where volunteers are working with patients with Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia to find ways to improve interaction with others in a low-stress environment.

Using a program called Time Slips, volunteers utilize poetic language of improvisational storytelling to invite people with dementia to express themselves and connect with others. The program founder Anne Basting describes the importance of their work this way… "People with dementia start to forget their social role; they might not remember they're a spouse ... a parent," says Basting. "They need a social role through which they can express who they are, and the role of storyteller really supplies that."

You can listen to the NPR Story HERE.

Naomi Shihab Nye latest book reviewed by Thomas Devaney

Book Review: ‘Transfer’ from Naomi Shihab Nye

Naomi Shihab Nye is one of the most spirited voices in American poetry. The author, editor, and translator of more than 30 volumes, she is best known for her poetry collections Fuel (1998) and You and Yours (2005), and her award-winning anthology of international poems for young people This Same Sky (1992). In her affirming introduction for that book, she writes, “Whenever someone suggests ‘how much is lost in translation!’ I want to say, ‘Perhaps — but how much is gained!’ ” »Read story

Katrina Vandenberg - New Poetry Book

Katrina Vandenberg wowed me several years back with her first poetry manuscript published as "Atlas." I had the opportunity to hear her read personally in Kansas City and purchased her book later as a result.  I saw an article online that appeared in the Twin Cities Star Tribune about her  her latest book... "Using letters as a frame, Vandenberg exercises restraint in her poems, letting the personal and historical inform one another." Catch the complete write up here. This will have to go on my books to buy list.

The Problem With Poetry

Confession Tuesday - It's All Good

It’s at time once again. Let’s go to the confessional.

Dear Reader:

A week since my last confession and a much better week weather wise. The weekend I wanted to Xerox and run off like 365 days like it.

Today it was actually warm in my office in the afternoon which resulted in my turning to a fan for some relief. I confess I get crank when the office gets warm. A co-worker visiting me in the afternoon on a mater thought it cold. I swear I don’ know what she was talking about. I felt like at best I was pushing around warm air. I confess that I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Thursday as our office is going to the ball game and I’m counting on this weather to continue.

Last weekend I wrote a very good draft in one sitting.  I confess that makes me uneasy to say because I know how rate those instances are. Still, I’ve done one rewrite – one very small change rewrite on it and I’m just letting it sit a bit longer while I think about it some more. I want to write like this all the time though I confess I realize how totally unrealistic that is. That’s why I tend to not get too excited about NAPOWRIMO in April. I’ve done it and produced some keepers but it tends to ad stress to the writing mix. Not a good ad-in ingredient.

I confess this month has some very exciting components yet ahead. My son is getting married and my daughter who has been away in school is retuning permanently. No kidding, this is not a dream. I keep pinching myself and I have the red marks to prove it!

Writers Lead Russian Opposition

RIA Novosti, the largest Russian news agency, reports that leading Russian writers spearheaded a 10,000 person protest against President Vladimir Putin's rule: A host of Russian literary figures led thousands of people through the squares and boulevards of downtown Moscow on Sunday afternoon to an opposition camp that has become the epicenter of the challenge to the rule of President Vladimir Putin.

Protest leaders say that arbitrary and illegal arrests of  persons by the Russian government has lead to their opposition to Putin's reign.

Writers and in particular poets have held a special place in Russian society over the years. It will be with watching to see what course this opposition takes if the government clamps down especially hard.

Behind the Deak

A shadow fell across his leafy brow.
The sinister one. The heavy one.
His feet were big as his buckets
propped on his desk-
it was the mammoth dark wood desk
that created a chasm between him
and anyone who strolled in.

Casual was not his color.  Casual was too close.
It allowed for comfort and that tilted the scales
in the wrong direction.  Always he strives to be
that backhand shot across the net that comes to you
in such a way you have to lean hard and fast to return
the serve and only with dumb luck will the volley be back
in his court anytime soon.

A Poem Takes Place

"A door opens, a door shuts. In between you had a glimpse: a garden, a person, a rainstorm, a dragonfly, a heart, a city. I think of those round glass Victorian paperweights ...a clear globe, self-complete, very pure, with a forest or village or family group within it. You turn it upside down, then back. It snows. Everything is changed in a minute. It will never be the same in there - not the fur trees, nor the gables, nor the faces. So a poem takes place."  ~ Sylvia Plath

Thank You Maurice for the Gift of Your Imagination

"I believe there is no part of our lives, our adult as well as child life, when we're not fantasizing, but we prefer to relegate fantasy to children, as though it were some tomfoolery only fit for the immature minds of the young. Children do live in fantasy and reality; they move back and forth very easily in a way we no longer remember how to do."

Maurice Bernard Sendak  - 10 June 1928 – 8 May 2012

Let the wild rumpus start in heaven!

Confession Tuesday - Roundup Edition

Dear Reader:

I have the day off today and it suddenly occurred to me that I should have a day off every Confession Tuesday.  I actually have it off because it's Harry S Truman's birthday. I know that some of you may find that odd, but around here the nation's 33rd President is a pretty big deal.  And who am I to question a paid holiday. It could be celebrate dirt clod day and I confess it would be happy to have it off.

I confess that this past week we've had too much rain for my liking. I can hear the green stuff growing again and that means I need to mow the lawn. [sigh]

This past week I've been moving lots of things around including adding the book case above to our bedroom. I confess that I have a habit of many books scattered all about the house. I have book cases in my office but I will still carry books out including especially the bedroom. Now I don't have an excuse to let them pile up in the bedroom and I will be able to find many of those transitory books with greater ease.

Another benefit of the new book case and cleaning in my office I have managed to locate what I believe to be nearly all of my personal journals. I confess that these did not have a specific home and now about 20 of them occupy one shelf dedicated just to them. I confess this has inspired me to plan to recycle through these some 4,000 plus pages looking for gems that I can go back and inspire me to take them steps beyond where I left off.

Reading in Remembering Randall - a memoir of Randall Jarrell written by his wife Mary von Schrader Jarrell, she discusses Randall's work on Translations as something he turned allowing him to use his writing energies  even when he felt poemless himself. She talks about him at times wondering if he had already written his last book.  I confess that reading this was encouraging to me in that I realize someone the callabur  of Randall Jarrell also had doubts and dry periods.

I  confess that I'm looking forward to a summer free of dry writing periods. Hey, I can hope!

The Pen and the Bell

“Strictly speaking, this isn’t a book—it’s a beautiful, quiet path into the deep woods of contemplative practice through the medium of the written word." ~ Norman Fischer, from the Foreword to The Pen and the Bell


I don't know about you but this sounds pretty sumptuous to me.   Check out the author's site here:

 The Pen and the Bell - Mindful Writing in a Busy World

Mag 115: The Way To Read...

   image by Manu Pombrol         

                                          

Barely anything else is relevant

the surroundings conically insular;

reading aloud has ringing quality

reverberating off Mason and water.

Did I say water? I hardly notice it

we have become temperate equals.

This is the way to read a superior literary work—

aloud, to yourself and the rest of the world be damned.

Michael A. Wells

Mag 115

If

Outstretched is how this week as been

with multiple vulnerabilities sacked out

in bunk beds resting up for the next day.

The weekend is nigh but I fear it

hardly will differ from the last

with no demarcation, no reverence,

no amount of appreciation for

white space, for quiet on the page,

for ink that might occur if given

half a chance.

What my Biorhythms say about my day today...

Your intuition is intensified. You can foresee events and sense which way the wind is blowing. Such ability will give you a greater understanding of others, and will be advantageous in current situations. Be aware of opportunities that may present themselves today. Plan for the future. New long-term contracts could turn out to be successful.

Physical state: Negative
Emotional state: Negative
Intellectual state: Positive
Intuitive state: Positive

Emotional minimum

The emotional minimum is characterized by a decrease in desires and a tendency toward depression, apathy, and irritability (usually women are more strongly affected). This is a difficult period for creative people, due to feelings of apathy. For the same reason, this period is not conducive to love.

Good - Bad

"If good poetry is to be written, enormous amounts of bad poetry must be written too, if only because it is important for a serious poet to know what it is she/he is trying not to do." ~ Germaine Greer, The 
Independent on Sunday, 7 May 2000

Confession Tuesday - Poet Crush List Edition

May Day, May Day! 

Dear Reader:

Can you believe it’s May first already? It’s been a week since my last confession and I have no idea where time is flying to this year.  Let’s get started.

So Poetry Month has come and gone.  I confess that I did not write a poem a day.  But I didn't fall off the NaPoWriMo band wagon because I never really go on it.  Let's say I wrote a number of poetry drafts - some of which are keepers and I avoided the stress of the Poem-A-Day Rat Race.  I confess that I have no shame about my approach this year.

It’s been about six months since I’ve done a Poet Crush list so today’s confession is a good point in which to reassess the members of my ten person list.   (see last list here) I’ve actually given this some thought for several days now. The thought process goes something like this…

·        If I’m stuck in a writer’s funk, who are the poets I go to over and over and read for a jump start with some inspiration?

·        What poets am I likely to find on my night stand on any given night?

·        Who do I often refer to persons who ask, “Who should I read next?”

·        Whose body of work do I most like to read for shear enjoyment?

·        What poets would I like to pick their brain over lunch or dinner?

·        If I hear the word poet or poetry who are the first to come to my mind?

Invariably application of the above will produce repeat poetry practitioners and those ten who most often repeat in these categories represent my poetry “crushes.”

I would say this list is often in flux.  I suppose I could reassess monthly its members but I think a six month checkup is probably often enough.

So here it is… I confess these ten poets currently comprise my Poet Crush List.

1.      W.S. Merwin

2.      James Richardson (new to list)

3.      Sharon Olds

4.      Kelli Russell Agodon

5.      Dean Young (new to list)

6.      John Ashbery

7.      Mary Biddinger (new to list)

8.      Charles Simic

9.      Ada Limon

10.   Beth Ann Fennelly

Note:  these appear in no special order - Also , these are all living poets.  I could do a dead poet crush list too, maybe I will.

So who are your poet crushes?

Journal Bits 4-19-2012 to 4-17-2012

Spring showers falling today. I've been inside - cleaning and thought I'd take a break and post some Journal Bits...

Since April 19th, 2012


4-19-2012 "Went out and got dinner for us last night to rent two movies for us last night and strawberry shortcake dessert. Rented two movies for us to watch and they were bombs..."


4-20-2012  [Copied this from a post by Kelli Russell Agodon... made me smile though seriously I think some truth lies therein... I believe that poets simply have their own humor that almost no one else gets. It just goes with the territory.]  "Sometimes being a poet feels as if you're in your own comedy."


4-20-2012 Reading at Crossroads Tonight:  I read, The Geese Returned Today, Whirly Girl, If I may Ask and I Offered You Wine.


4-22-2012  "unconsciously you stunk/in right field and something/about your shirt - your non-regulation//It all came to a head/when you were pulled/after too many errors/too much pic-neck/maybe too many Brauts//finishing out the game on the pic-neck table bench/and the search for your glove/ someone said they thought/someone put it in a trash can."


4-24-2012 Listening to Madeline Albright on Morning Joe talk about here heritage as well as her new memoir, Prague Winter. Fascinating stuff. I want to read this book.


4-27-2012 "why is it that things/mattering seem such a loss/that mattering seems beyond control/like you are urinating/down your pants legs/that it's just happening/that's all there is.//Your pissed on legs don't move/they don't run to hide/they don't seek fresh trousers/they just stand/without a care.

Our Modern Culture

"I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can't read any poetry." ~ Randall Jarrell

Late for Confession Tuesday

Dear reader:  It's late, I know. But I'm here just the same. It's been a week and a day since my last confession. I'll be very up front with you, I'm a little testy as I've been to both the dentist and an ENT specialist. You know the scope thingy down the nasal passage? Not so fun.

I confess that I had not been to the dentist in quite a while.  I will be making another trip back in May. {Sigh}

I confess that I started reading a new book today. Remembering Randall ...  a memoir of poet Randall Jarrell. Yes, that would be the same Mr. Jarrell who's quote resides up just under the blog title. I'll let you know what I think of it when I finish it.

I confess there seem to be more birds in and around our yard lately. Did someone tell them I was bird watching this spring as ask them to drop by? It's like they are hosting a Meet Up! right here. I confess this is kinda enjoyable.  If I have to start cleaning white wash off my car windshields soon I may rethink that.

One of our dogs brought  a cousin of Alvin to our back door this past week. I refuse to accept that it was more then a very distant relation of the famed Chipmunk. I confess this is not viewed on the same level of the many birds.

Well that's the best this cranky man can do for today.  Have a great week!

Good Time for creative endeavors

Based upon my bio-rhythms for today:

You are in good shape. This period is favorable for creative endeavors. Rest and idleness should not be indulged, as this is a good time to start a new business, expand your sphere of influence, or make new acquaintances. You have a positive influence on people and situations. You'll be able to prove yourself easily. Use this time productively.

Physical state: Positive

Emotional state: Positive

Intellectual state: Positive

Intuitive state: Negative