Jon wrote this wonderful poem for his mother who is living with dementia after hearing the bookcase analogy which is in our Dementia Friends Information Sessions. Jon said: “She now has no clue who I am but remembers her childhood. I wrote a poem called bookcase based on that.”
Bookcase
My minds bookcase overflowing
Each day as I learn, growing
Books filled with numbers and words
Facts of life, the bees and the birds
A library of memories, for all to see
Always there and always free
As time ticks by, as the days grow long
As draws to an end my song
Memories fade, as pages become blank
Words missing like a cruel prank
As the shelves empty and burn
Dementia takes the books, but never return
As my bookcase stands bare
As I look at you and stare
Everything I knew now like sand
Running through the fingers of my hand
As tears fall to the floor
My memories gone, I know you no more
As the bookcase falls down
In nothingness I drown
Everything I knew drifted away
As the clouds in my sky turn grey
As the rains wash away my final thought
Every I was, everything taught
I lost you once, in the early dawn
But now I lost you twice, now you are gone
