In this AlzAuthors podcast episode, poet Marjorie Maddox and acquisitions editor Sheila Luna join host Marianne Sciucco to discuss the healing power of poetry, the realities of long-distance caregiving, and finding hope through the complexities of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Marjorie also reads several of the poems in this collection. After listening or watching on YouTube, you can read Marjorie’s exclusive blog post for AlzAuthors below.
By Marjorie Maddox, Pennsylvania, USA
Of all my books, the newest—Seeing Things (Wildhouse, February 2025)—proved the most difficult to write, but also one of the most important. The reason is because of you, dear reader. To better understand ourselves and others, poetry creates experiences. It helps us discover connections between strangers and uncover insight and understanding where we thought there were none. Through specific images and scenes, it says, this is my grief, joy, or hope. Is it yours as well?
The poems in Seeing Things record fear, vulnerability, and joy—both from the perspective of caregivers and from those receiving care. With parent or spouse alongside, the path of dementia, is painful for all. No doubt about that. Sometimes it is sprinkled with humor; often it is surrounded by competitive “truths” and memories. Other times, the difference between reality and fiction blur. There is also the mourning of what used to be and the letting go of shared memories and previously established roles. Throw in Covid, and there is a lot happening all at once.
As the AlzAuthors community knows, dementia impacts entire families, where individuals also may be struggling with other challenges. For instance, in Seeing Things, I explore three generations of women and their overlapping roles, including the role of daughter whose mother is in the early stages of dementia, mother of a daughter struggling with depression, and woman juggling her own memories of abuse and survival. The book also addresses the increasingly blurry lines between truth and lie in today’s society.
A series of odes weaves through this not-so-cheery subject matter. Here’s why: I drafted most of these poems during a wonderfully productive 2018 writing residency, addressing and re-creating difficult experiences. I found myself writing poems that I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to publish or even share with others. They felt too vulnerable. Yet, they also felt urgent, necessary. So I wrote a great deal, drafting at least three poems a day.
After this forging ahead, I hit a wall—or rather, an ode. The “collision” turned into a moment of grace. One ode begat another and then another. The process of writing odes also made it easier for me to continue writing poems about dementia/Alzheimer’s and about those in my life affected by the disease: a mother, step-father, and father-in-law.
I began writing the first evening I arrived. The poem “Tip” came out almost-whole, one line toppling into another. The poem’s subject, that sensation of having a word “on the tip of the tongue” yet unable to remember it, gave me a way to “see” inside my mother’s own frustration of forgetting names, ages, and places. I also recognized connections to the writing process, my trying to capture memories that seemed just beyond the boundaries of sound, sight, and comprehension. Through writing, I often re-discovered all three.
Affected by the events of 2018—2021, I revised Seeing Things many times. I took poems out. I added new ones. One addition recounts long-distance phone calls with my mother during Covid, where we discuss a rabbit in my backyard, one she names “Hope.” The newest poem, a pantoum, recounts a post-Covid accident where my mother falls out of the bathtub while an aide is washing her. What follows is a flurry of concern. And, yet, ten minutes later, my mother has forgotten the entire incident. “After the fall, she forgets.//She is alive again only in the moment. Is it enough?”
That question—“Is it enough?”—is what I keep asking. What I discover through poetry—the memories and insights it reveals—may start to give me an answer.
Purchase Seeing Things
About the Author
English Professor Emerita at Commonwealth University, Marjorie Maddox has published 17 collections of poetry, including How Can I Look It Up When I Don’t Know How It’s Spelled?; Seeing Things; Hover Here (forthcoming); and the ekphrastic collections Small Earthly Space and Heart Speaks, Is Spoken For (with Karen Elias); and In the Museum of My Daughter’s Mind (with daughter Anna Lee Hafer), a 2023 Dragonfly Book Award in fine arts and American Fiction Winner Award in poetry. Maddox also has published a story collection, 4 children’s books, and the anthologies Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets on Pennsylvania and Keystone Poetry (both form PSU Press and co-edited with Jerry Wemple). Assistant editor of Presence, she hosts WPSU-FM’s Poetry Moment.
Connect with Marjorie
Twitter/X: @marjoriemaddox
About the Podcast
AlzAuthors is the global community of authors writing about Alzheimer’s and dementia from personal experience to light the way for others. Our podcast introduces you to our authors who share their stories and insights to provide knowledge, comfort, and support. Please subscribe so you don’t miss a word. If our authors’ stories move you, please leave a review. And don’t forget to share our podcast with family and friends on their own dementia journeys.
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