While running the limerick contest, I came across the Poetry Train hosted at From My Brain to Yours. Today while checking over The Hidden Side of a leaf, Dewey always has some great reading....I connected with the train again. I have always like poems and today's poem is written about Alzheimer's Disease. I have a relative in an assisted living facility and I am curious about what is remembered and what is forgotten.
The Longest Days
The traffic outside has subsided
It’s a hum, not a rush
I walk to my meals, when called
By the voices outside my room.
The hours between meals standstill
Giving me time to gather my thoughts
The thoughts that are like fireflies,
Bright for a moment, then dark
The memories are sparks that ignite
The fireflies of thoughts shooting
Off into the once familiar haven
Of my mind dimmed by the fog
Once I was in the rush of traffic
With thoughts clear as summer sky
Now I am among the walking
Forgetting the days gone by.
The traffic outside has subsided
It’s a hum, not a rush
I walk to my meals, when called
By the voices outside my room.
The hours between meals standstill
Giving me time to gather my thoughts
The thoughts that are like fireflies,
Bright for a moment, then dark
The memories are sparks that ignite
The fireflies of thoughts shooting
Off into the once familiar haven
Of my mind dimmed by the fog
Once I was in the rush of traffic
With thoughts clear as summer sky
Now I am among the walking
Forgetting the days gone by.
Now I just have to figure out the code for Manic Mondays from It's Blog Eat Blog World.
Hi, I've come over from Rhian's blog.
ReplyDeleteI like your treatment of Alzheimers. I will think of your poem, when I see my mom's friend Saturday.
Thank you.
Hey, Jen! That's really moving; I lost a grandparent to Alzheimer's and have a friend whose husband is fighting it.
ReplyDeleteThis struck home, in a good way.
Glad you're on the train!
Again - welcome aboard Jen and thank you very much for this offering. I thought this was brilliant:
ReplyDelete"The thoughts that are like fireflies,
Bright for a moment, then dark"
Unlike Lisa and Susan I haven't had family or friends with Alzheimers but i think it's one of the diseases we all fear as we age, because there is so much loss of self with the loss of our memories.
That's great Jen, wish I couldn't relate. Both my parents have their moments and getting closer together.
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard! WooWoo!
ReplyDeleteI really loved these lines:
"I walk to my meals, when called
By the voices outside my room."
The distant observational tone is unsettling and really grabs the reader into the world of the poem's narrator. Nice offering for your first Poetry Train.
Hey Jen.. your poem reminded me of a dear friend whose mom fought Alzheimer's for years and I couldn't bear to see how hard it was for my friend who would go to see her every week for years but felt she had already lost her mom!! Really sad!
ReplyDeleteOn the transition, I didn't feel at all confident if I could move without problems, so I did get a lot of help.. I will post about it one of these days...:)
I love this
ReplyDeleteI loved that poem, my Grandpa had Alzheimer's and I was really moved by your words.
ReplyDeleteI think that is what it must really be like for them.
It was hard to watch a virile man fade away and get weak. I was there with him the day before he died and we had our parish priest anoint him - and for a moment I saw 'real' grandpa looking up at me.
I knew for that one moment he understood what was happening and he felt he could finally leave this world.
This is very moving and reminded me of a poet I met who had Alzheimer's.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the compliment! My blog is "the hidden side of a leaf" but close enough! :)
Excellent poetry, Jen. You constantly amaze me with your many talents. Not that I'm surprised you are talented...just that you are good at so many things.
ReplyDelete