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Alzheimers
Posted: 06 March 2004
Word Count: 114
Summary: Remember when....
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Alzheimer's
Once you thought
everything through.
From A to Z
and everything
in-between.
Letters for love
letters for school
letters for hospital
letters for us.
Now you sit surrounded
by minds alphabet soup,
words sticking onto each
other, the juice like glue.
People left in your waiting
room crowded with relative
strangers made too forgettable
by the loose shots of synapse.
Scissors eat your dictionaries
Piranha attack your diaries
earthquakes raise your cities
ancient landmarks laid waste.
One day you will
look my way
and say who is it?
For now we joke
about then
and pray together.
For now we know
there is much more
to life than can be
remembered.
John G.Hall(C)2004
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Comments by other Members
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 roovacrag at 12:09 on 06 March 2004
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John a good one.
This brings alzheimers home to everyone who reads it. Can strike anyone without notice.Hard to see it destroy the once alert mind.
Well done my friend.
xx Alice
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Fearless at 12:37 on 06 March 2004
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Remember when....remember what? As the amyloid beta protein deposits itself again and again, synapses are soaked, axons panic and neurons die, with even the memory of an impulse fading away.
A great poem JGH, write on,
fearless
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miffle at 15:15 on 06 March 2004
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Great poem which I found tender and empathic - like a reaching out, a loved one's attempt in confusion too to understand. I could hear the weight of 'letter for us' (so poignantly placed at the close of the stanza). I found the jumble of 'crowded' 'relative' 'stranger' moving in Verse 5. I liked the movement from the painstaking referencing of the A-Z mind though to the childlike chaos (playfulness? inventiveness?) of the 'alphabet soup' - This image suggested resilient spirits to me i.e. in its hint of the comic. This poem also made me wonder 'if there is a sweet release of sorts in not thinking everything through?'. Regards, Miffle
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olebut at 16:05 on 06 March 2004
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John
a hard subject to tackle and you do it well and with great sensitivity may I suggest a couple of minor changes
lines 2 and 4 I think fall over themselves ( which of course could be deliberate in view of the subject but) you could think about changing the 2nd 'everything ' to all things so the line reads
'all things between' or just delete the second everything and replace it with 'all'
line 12 consider taking out the words 'onto each other'
take care
david
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Account Closed at 18:33 on 06 March 2004
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I thought this was great - the alphabet soup idea is an absolutely stunning image. So much poignancy and truth in this.
Anne B
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 Elsie at 22:25 on 06 March 2004
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John, a very sobering poem, very scary. "Scissors eating your dictionary..' For me, losing my mind is my worst nightmare, I feel for you if this is based on someone you know.
Elsie
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Dreamer at 02:27 on 04 May 2005
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Very nice John.
I particularly liked:
'Scissors eat your dictionary
Pirana attack your diaries
earthquakes raise your cities
ancient landmarks laid waste.'
This is the worst disease a family can have. I say family because it is not only the patient or victim that suffers. With your mind intact you can cope with most things, but this attacks your mind as you have expressed so well.
Have you seen the movie 'The Diary'? I highly recommend it.
Brian.
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John G.Hall 
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