I guess you could say that I'm not averse to rhyming verse. I've always enjoyed writing it, and I especially enjoy constructing limericks - they seem to me to have a particular elegance. Since the onset of my dementia, I have found that I sometimes wake from sleep with a completed poem or limerick in my head that simply needs to be written down. I'm not saying that they're good - who am I to judge? But they rhyme and they're simple and accessible. Here are a few examples of the cornucopia of weirdness that my brain has become: Remember.
Remember, remember, I just can’t remember
There’s something that’s stuck in my mind
It’s a name, it’s a face, it’s a time, it’s a place
It’s a “something” I just cannot find.
Remember, remember, why can’t I remember
Things once so close to my heart?
Soon loved ones, once dear, will be strangers I fear
And I can’t stop things falling apart.
Remember, remember, I try to remember
Names I once held in my hand
But nowadays I find, they come into my mind
And then slip through my fingers like sand.
A demented old codger named Pete
Whose memory began to deplete
Said “it isn’t so bad”
“Cos no-one gets mad”
“If I say something too indiscrete”.
Old Peter, though somewhat confused
Was more often amused than bemused
“It’s ironic” he said
“That I’m losing the thread”
“When most of my brain’s still unused”.
There was an old man from Dundee
Who joined 3NDWG*
Although not demented
He felt quite contented
'Cos there was no membership fee.
(*3 Nations Dementia Working Group)
There once was a girl from Valencia
Who lived with a form of dementia
When asked "what's it like"?
She answered dreamlike
"It's a wild and exciting adventure".
A wizened old man from Beijing
Said "dementia's a terrible thing"
“But don't treat us like kids”
“Or compliant bovids”
“Or assume that we all want to sing”.
Here is a "concrete" poem that I wrote this morning (20/09/2020)
Quite difficult. Hope it works:
