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News & ArtsTuesday, August 18, 2009
Books Painful Poetry
Posted by Charles Mudede on Tue, Aug 18, 2009 at 9:39 AM
The opening of a press release:
From The Kent State University Press comes a literary collection that illuminates the darkness of Alzheimer’s disease.Poetry (or literature) has its limits. We must do our best not to cross those limits.Alzheimer’s disease is estimated to affect one in two persons over the age of 80 and is being diagnosed in people as young as 50. For those trying to cope with a loved one that suffers from this tragic disease and for those in the medical community who work with Alzheimer patients, Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer’s Disease... edited by Holly J. Hughes will provide solace and valuable.. insight
1
Charles: You are oddly conservative about some things, such as living bridges, riding animals, and poetry. To what should poetry confine itself? Rainbows? Paths in woods? Girls from Nantucket?
2
I see his point about this. We tend to treat pain as something you should instinctively put into some context that "popularizes" it. It does in a strange way cheapen the pain and suffering of the pain. Many times suffering is just that suffering; you can't do anything to it to make it anything else.
3
Yes, let's not talk about important things, let's just masturbate all over our keyboards whenever there's a picture of an attractive Italian woman online.
4
i understand writing a poem about alzheimers, but i don't understand reading a poem about alzheimers.
5
One person in two, huh? This should give poets and authors ample opportunity to exploit the suffering of loved ones in order to secure the attention they crave.
I'm sure at least one will end up as a house-music-backed weeper on This American Life, a virtual clearing house of familial exploitation.
I'm sure at least one will end up as a house-music-backed weeper on This American Life, a virtual clearing house of familial exploitation.
6
DO U KNOW WHY KARLES IZ AFRAID?!?!?!?!
BECUZ HE WON'T BE ABLE TO REMEMBER THE JOY OF HAVING NOTHING, BEING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING, DOING NOTHING, AND SOMETIMES SHROOMS IN HIS ELEVATOR SHAFT WHILE HE WUZ SLUMMING IT WITH SUM RAD 'MERICANS.
BECUZ HE WON'T BE ABLE TO REMEMBER THE JOY OF HAVING NOTHING, BEING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING, DOING NOTHING, AND SOMETIMES SHROOMS IN HIS ELEVATOR SHAFT WHILE HE WUZ SLUMMING IT WITH SUM RAD 'MERICANS.
7
Alzheimer's Poem
I think I loved you once
I would like a cookie
I think I loved you once
I would like a cookie
I think I loved you once
I would like a cookie
Strawberries
Cold
Have we met?
I think I loved you once
I would like a cookie
I think I loved you once
I would like a cookie
I think I loved you once
I would like a cookie
Strawberries
Cold
Have we met?
8
A good resource is The Alzheimer's Project on HBO. Not sure where the link is there.
Or http://coref.alz.washington.edu/ is a good site too.
Or http://coref.alz.washington.edu/ is a good site too.
10
Someone gradually losing their mind and often being aware of it as it happens, or watching it happen to someone you love, is very heavy stuff. Who are we if we lose our memories or personality or knowledge of who our loved ones are? It's certainly worthy of being explored through art. You people are dumbasses. Thank-you.
11
Re #2, #5,
So you think poetry and prose have no valid therapeutic or awareness-raising uses? Nobody seems to complain when we see poems about depression, stories about the struggles of the gay community, songs about the horrors of war, etc. Why is Alzheimer's taboo? I don't see this as trying to exploit anybody or "popularize" anything, just raising awareness and providing something to the victims and caretakers out there to show they are not alone. Read about the book before making baseless accusations about motive: http://www.beyondforgettingbook.com/abou…
So you think poetry and prose have no valid therapeutic or awareness-raising uses? Nobody seems to complain when we see poems about depression, stories about the struggles of the gay community, songs about the horrors of war, etc. Why is Alzheimer's taboo? I don't see this as trying to exploit anybody or "popularize" anything, just raising awareness and providing something to the victims and caretakers out there to show they are not alone. Read about the book before making baseless accusations about motive: http://www.beyondforgettingbook.com/abou…
12
Are there limits to poetry? Much finer minds than yours have tried to find/establish them, yet those limits never stand for very long once poets hear of them. Appropriate galoshes anyone?
As to whether these poems are exploitative or popularizing, perhaps we should decide based on the poems rather than on the press release?
As to whether these poems are exploitative or popularizing, perhaps we should decide based on the poems rather than on the press release?
13
can't be any worse than the Alzheimer's "poetry slam" contest that the Alzheimer's Association held at last year's Society for Neuroscience meeting. That was some terrible, horrible crap.
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