This blog will be a place to post poetry written by people living with Alzheimer's disease. We will focus on poetry that is created as part of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project. We will post information and news about dementia. We hope this blog is of use to the family members who have a loved one with dementia.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Amanda Deutch on the Alzheimer's Poetry Project



Amanda Deutch is one of the APP's New York Poets, she speaks about her work with the APP and her father's Alzheimer's. This video is from a reading for the APP at the Community Bookstore in Brooklyn on Nov. 10th, 2010

Born and raised in New York City, Amanda Deutch is a poet who traveled the world only to return to the borough in which both of her parents were born. Amanda Deutch's work has been published widely in such magazines as Barrow Street, EOAGH, 6x6, Listenlight, Upstairs at Duroc and Full Metal Poem. She was the recipient of a Footpaths to Creativity residency in the Azores, Portugal and is a member of the Dusie Kollektiv and Rewords (www.rewords.blogspot.com). Her writing has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and she has been invited to read in venues throughout the United States, Europe and North Africa. Deutch is the Founder and Creative Director of Parachute: The Coney Island Performance Festival in Coney Island as well as an arts organizer and educator. A former Counselor and Case Manager for at-risk youth in Portland, Oregon, she has designed and led poetry workshops for runaways, homeless teenagers, and adult cancer survivors. Whether hitting the pavement or inking the pen, Deutch dedicates herself to revealing the poetry everywhere.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Translating Edwin Honig: A Poet’s Alzheimer’s


Union Docs has a wonderful piece on Alan Berliner's film "Translating Edwin Honig: A Poet’s Alzheimer’s." Great clips from the film and insight into the filmmaker and his relationship to his cousin, friend and former mentor — the poet, translator, critic, and teacher, Edwin Honig.

Check it out at http://www.uniondocs.org/translating-alan-berliner/

One of the most poignant scenes from the film is when Alan asks Edwin what the “one thing” he would say to millions of people watching him in a film, “Remember how to forget.” is Edwin's answer.

Honig was an early translator of Lorca and Pessoa.

You may read some of Honig's poems at Jacket Magazine

Here are the opening lines from "To Infinite Eternity"

Death is closer
to infinite eternity
than life is

and each life closer
to each least breath
than the blankness of
infinite eternity itself

More on Honig's work at the Poetry Foundation website.