Words that forgot they exist: Dementia Dialogues

These poems are the work of a poet who realizes he is slipping – slowly – into dementia. They are the poems of a man whose brain doesn't work as fast as it used to, and he knows it. The power of the poems lies not in dramatic imagery but in the way they bring the experiences and perceptions of the poet – not muddled but razor-sharp – to the reader. They are, as he puts it, “old guy poems”, the fruits of a lifetime of reflection and extraordinarily sensitive perception of people and place – here the mountains and lakes of the Kootenays. hese poems are the work of a poet who realizes he is slipping – slowly – into dementia. They are the poems of a man whose brain doesn't work as fast as it used to, and he knows it. The power of the poems lies not in dramatic imagery but in the way they bring the experiences and perceptions of the poet – not muddled but razor-sharp – to the reader. They are, as he puts it, “old guy poems”, the fruits of a lifetime of reflection and extraordinarily sensitive perception of people and place – less here the mountains and lakes of the Kootenays (the subject of his other works) but more the people closest to the author – his partner, daughter and friends. All the tools of the poetic craftsman are harnessed here in a work that is as fine and as memorable as anything the author has ever created.These are poems that invite the reader into a place that will mark him or her deeply, because they speak to a reality that many, if not most, of us will experience as we grow older. If the reader is not an "old guy" (or "old girl") already, then he or she will be one day. And that's why it is important to read these poems today. They show us the clarity that comes with age, the distillation of emotion and perception that is, in fact, a special kind of gift.