tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8192890093984872273.post8607221778512459251..comments2023-03-15T14:04:14.114+09:00Comments on ! Haiku and Happiness ! (02): AlzheimerGabi Grevehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16362456518166174106noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8192890093984872273.post-43915493501219742962008-04-03T15:41:00.000+09:002008-04-03T15:41:00.000+09:00Signs of Spring: Haiku Poems by Persons with Demen...Signs of Spring: <BR/>Haiku Poems by Persons with Dementia<BR/><BR/>Kingston, Ontario: Rideaucrest Home, 2007.<BR/><BR/>signs of spring celebrates therapeutic power of poetry<BR/><B><BR/>jumping in puddles<BR/>more water in your boots<BR/>than out<BR/><BR/>sitting around the table<BR/>grandmothers<BR/>remembering grandmothers<BR/></B><BR/><BR/>... the brainchild of Marjorie Woodbridge, co-ordinator of spiritual care at Kingston’s Rideaucrest Home. Woodbridge first witnessed the power of poetry in “Soul Sessions,” a spiritual-care program she created that uses the arts to stimulate the memories of people with dementia, helping them establish connections and make meaning of their world. <BR/><BR/>“The haiku poems came as a sidebar to this process,” says Woodbridge. “As I watched them respond to poetry in our sessions, I thought they might respond to haiku, as it is so sensory.”<BR/><BR/>But the poems in signs of spring are a delightful surprise that transport the reader beyond the therapeutic exercise. There is a startling naturalness and touching immediacy in the images of kitchens, kittens, crows, tomatoes, pumpkins and rain, offering intensely visceral moments of humour, playfulness, loss and sadness – without the panic and awkward bewilderment generally associated with those with dementia. <BR/><BR/>Instead, we see a husband’s memory of 40 Valentine’s Day celebrations with his beloved wife become an impish ode to 40 shared boxes of chocolates, while a woman’s delight in making snow angels becomes a sigh about society and fitting behaviour. <BR/><BR/>http://www.kingstonlife.ca/sitepages/?aid=1125Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8192890093984872273.post-17542989205016508602007-10-12T23:55:00.000+09:002007-10-12T23:55:00.000+09:00my poems retirebefore they are written... winter c...my poems retire<BR/>before they are written<BR/>... winter clouds<BR/><BR/>Ella Wagemakers<BR/>PS. Not sure if this is a ku or senryu, or neither, although there is a kigo.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com