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