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Writer's picturePeter Middleton

Poetry Please...

Updated: Sep 20, 2020



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:


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1 Comment


Rosie Flaxman
Rosie Flaxman
Aug 27, 2020

Thank you! I did enjoy reading these. There's something very satisfying about rhymes. And it's good to have something to smile at.

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