Poems for My Mum, Heroic Women and a Brattish Cat

Celia came for coffee this morning and stayed for lunch. That was, I hasten to add, at my invitation and I was delighted she accepted.

She came to read poetry.

Today, Mother would have been 95. I have emailed people to ask them to celebrate her life by reading a poem aloud to someone else, to enjoy some shared reading, just as she and I did. I’ve had some lovely responses. Now it’s time to ask you.

It doesn’t have to be today; spin in out – make December the shared reading month, or 2015 the shared reading year – it may be decades since you sat back and listened to someone read to you, or maybe it’s something you do every day. For many of us, it’s something associated with childhood, something we don’t do with other adults. Yet for something so simple, it is immensely powerful and helps us to connect with each other.

I think this  photo is from the day I started taking reading aloud to my mother seriously. I flipped back through the posts on this blog, and found what I had written. If you are curious, click here, and you can read it too.

Mum 2nd June 2010

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Share the Reading, Share the Love

As luck would have it, I was booked in to attend the Reader Organisation conference today in London. I spoke about this organisation at Mother’s funeral yesterday, explaining why it is one of the two chosen charities we are asking people to donate to in her memory. The other one is Pets as Therapy. I didn’t expect to see anyone I knew, which was foolish, because of course the facilitator from the Get Into Reading group I have attended twice was there. She was one of the first people I saw when I went to the coffee and second breakfast spot.
I was wishing more and more that I could swap my first workshop for the one on dementia, when I saw the reports on the work the Reader Organisation has done with people living with dementia sitting on a table. I picked up two copies; one for me, one to drop into the home where Mother was living.
There was an opening session in the auditorium. I took a seat, and then saw Sandra, a local storyteller and member of our poetry group walking up the central aisle. I caught up with her at the coffee break. Her sister died in the autumn, and both of us had been tripped up by a reading about a boy who had lost his mother.
We were in the same group after the break. My emotions sloshed about in that one too, and then it was lunchtime. Another member of my local Get Into Reading group turned up. She is interested in joining the poetry group, so I introduced her to Sandra, and watched them bond.
After lunch there was a fascinating talk about how our brains respond to poetry, and how in particular they respond to functional shifts; nouns used as verbs, adverbs as nouns and so on. Shakespeare was fond of this, and today helped explain why some of his phrases catch us and spin our imaginations as they do. But I was amazed that reading poetry results in increased activity in all parts of our brains.
We were very well fed all day. Despite the fact I was interested in the talk, I could happily have had a mid-afternoon nap, but it was on tothe next seminar.
The whole day was about the strength of shared reading, of building communities around shared reading; using reading to make connections with people, to improve health and wellbeing.

Get Into Reading (You Know You Want To)

I’ve posted about the Reader Organisation before. The organisation is passionate about the healing power of reading. I am a bit of a fan. I found them when searching to see if there had been any research into people like Mother, who live with dementia, responding to poetry. It was about the same time that A Little, Aloud was published. I bought Mother a copy, though in fact she enjoys the poems from the various Nation’s Favourite volumes better.
No matter.
The anthology A Little, Aloud for Children introduced me to the wonderful poem Instructions by Neil Gaiman. I reckon that alone justified the purchase price.

Eighteenth Stone: Socks Knocked Off

I am a big fan of the Reader Organisation. So when I saw there was a version of A Little, Aloud for Children I wanted to see it. But I didn’t expect the first entry, a poem, to blow me away. Treat yourselves, read it aloud, let the magic unroll and take you somewhere you didn’t know you were going.Instructions

Poetry and Dementia: A Little, Aloud

I have written a few times about Mother’s positive response when I read to her, particularly when I read poetry.

When she first moved into the very sheltered housing scheme years ago, I was asked what sort of things she enjoyed. I said then that she liked  to be read to, and suggested some of the books on her shelves; mainly ones about animals; The Owl and the Pussycat; but also the Bible.