Kids Who Give

Max Wallack the teenage poet whose poem was featured in Dementia Arts on Capitol Hill has been awarded $1000 from KidsWhoGive.com. Max is giving the money to Alzheimer’s research. Please help him win an additional $10,000 by voting for him at Kids Who Give at:  
http://kidswhogive.com/vote-on-entries/

Here is his poem from Dementia Arts on Capitol Hill:

Dementia

It gallops in silently on powerful hoofs
Snatching sweet, precious, forgotten memories
Turning true-blue loyal friends into treacherous strangers
Clogging synapses with emptiness
Crumbling trust into excruciating paranoia

With bleak darkness comes the anxious wakefulness of broad daylight
And bitter terror encompasses every living fiber
"If I sleep, where will I be when I wake up?"
The compulsion to run, the paralysis of fear

Mature, child-like dependence
Retracing youthful development, but in rapid reverse
Cureless medicines, meaningless conversations
Leading up to the inevitable

This poem was first published at Mind Set Poetry. The site is hosted by the Alzheimer's Association
Massachusetts/New Hampshire Chapter. Read the poems and learn more at : http://mindsetpoetry.org/

Max is also the founder of Puzzles-To-Remember. You may reading about the project on at: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Puzzles-To-Remember/106150529406566?group_id=0

Valentine's Dance

New York Memory Center & Alzheimer’s Poetry Project Present

Valentine’s Dance at the Memory Arts Café

Memory Arts Café is a new series of free art events for people living with Alzheimer’s disease, their caregivers and the general public and is co-produced by New York Memory Center and the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. The series, which takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month, includes light refreshments and the opportunity to chat with the guest artists.

This Memory Arts Café event features the dance company Rhythm Break Cares (RBC). Poet Gary Glazner will host the event.

Wednesday, February 13th, at 6 pm

New York Memory Center

199 14th Street at 4th Avenue • Brooklyn, NY 11215

(Take the R to Prospect Ave.)

For info: call (718) 499-7701 or visit alzpoetry.com

Please join us for an evening of fun, dancing and socializing. Rhythm Break Cares (RBC) takes a unique and highly effective approach to address the widespread and immediate needs of individuals with Alzheimer’s, associated dementias, and their caregivers, by engaging them in partner dance as a means to improve their quality of life. Since 2009, RBC has successfully offered this interesting form of dance therapy, which capitalizes on the demonstrated benefits of music, movement and touch. Their sessions provide a rare opportunity for patients and their caregivers to escape some of the burdens associated with Alzheimer’s and dementia, in a stress-free environment where they can observe, participate and be entertained.

What Does It Mean To Be A Doctor?

What Does It Mean To Be A Doctor?

-Dr. Peter Reimann

What it means to be a doctor

is a number of things.

People come to you

and want advice about their health

and they complain about what they consider

is missing from their health

Or they don’t.

They say, “What the hell do you think is wrong with me?

Lass mich allein, I’m fine

und du bist fur mich ein Borstenschwein!”*

What advice would I give a young doctor?

First I’d ask, “Why do you want to be a doctor?

Is it that you want to make money?

What for?

Or is it that you want to help other people?

What for?”

You ask me what was my reason to be a doctor.

I think my question was something of natural history.

Why are there people who need help?

Very complex, of course.

Do they need help because

of the hostile environment

or their internal hostility

or blah, blah, blah

What was the best thing about being a doctor?

…okay, one more question: $10-

Another complex  question.

It’s a job in which you keep your hands clean

You don’t get literally dirty

or it’s a job in which you make people feel a little better

or you make them feel really bad

Is that good?

Could be good-

Could be really bad…

and so on

and so on

*translation:  “Leave me alone, I’m fine

and you are for me a pig with many stiff hairs in his snout!”

(This poem was composed with Dr. Peter Reimann and his daughter Hannah in Springfield, New Jersey on Jan. 4th, 2013. Dr. Reimann is very playful with making up rhymes and jokes that his name means "rhyming man." He know many German poems by heart and recited and translated a few for us on the spot. We created the poem by asking questions around being a doctor. Hannah wrote down the answers to create the lines of the poem and translated the German lines. She is working on a film about her father and we will post links to it soon.)

Ballad of the Happy Guitar

The poets of Sierra Vista Assisted Living created this poem on December 5th, 2012 with poet Gary Glazner.

Our model poem was Edward Lear's “The Owl and the Pussy Cat,” with its wonderful line “...the owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar.”

The daughter of one of the participants, the writer Abby Frucht had asked us to read a poem she had written for her mother, which we incorporated into our performance. That poem in the form of a letter is included below. We created the poem by asking the participants what makes them happy.

We took our cue from Abby’s poem and while performing the poem and we all strummed imaginary "air-guitars."

Ballad of the Happy Guitar
A happy guitar,
with my husband.
Everything makes me happy.
Anyone makes me happy.
To dance makes me happy.
The Owl and the Pussy Cat!
Having you here.
It’s nothing immediate.
The sound a mandolin
makes me happy.
My father played
the mandolin.
I want to dance some more!
When I am feeling well
and I have good people with me,
that makes me happy.

Dear Mom,

I remember a song called
“The Sad Guitar.”
You sang it
to Sylvia and Liz and Me
when we were little girls.
We loved it.
You strummed it for us
on an air guitar
whenever we wanted
to hear it.
The guitar was sad
but you make us happy.

Love,
Abby

Strumming Air Guitars

APP in Seoul, South Korea

Azaleas

by Kim So-wol

(Translation by Brother Anthony)

When seeing me sickens you

and you walk out

I'll send you off without a word, no fuss.

Yongbyon's mount Yaksan's

azaleas

by the armful I'll scatter in your path.

With parting steps

on those strewn flowers

treading lightly, go on, leave.

When seeing me sickens you

and you walk out

why, I'd rather die than weep one tear.

APP workshop in Seoul, South Korea on Nov. 1st, 2012 This workshop was led by Gary Glazner and Michelle Otero on using poetry to enhance the creativity of people living with dementia through the performance and creation of poetry. The workshop was sponsored by the Koran Art and Culture Education Service. KACES is a government agency under Ministry of Culture supporting arts and culture education through Korea in many different arts field - public schools and communities including childcare centers, facilities for the elderly/the disabled, military officers and correctional facilities. More info at: http://eng.arte.or.kr/arte_eng/index.jsp

Jim on Dementia Arts

Jim describes participating in the Memory Arts Cafe performance at IONA Senior Services on Thursday, Sept. 20th in Washington DC. The event was part of the Dementia Arts Festival and featured musician Judith-Kate Friedman, Songwriting Works, dancer Maria Genne, Kairos Alive! and poet Gary Glazner More info at dementiaarts.com

Jelly Fish

A special session of the Memory Arts Café took place on Saturday, October 13th, as part of
Parachute: the Coney Island Performance Festival at the New York Aquarium.