Poetry on Wheels Brings Verse and Connection to Native Elders Living With Dementia

Chicago, IL—June 30, 2026—When poet Gary Glazner first stepped into an adult day program years ago, he recited a line from a Longfellow poem—"I shot an arrow into the air"—to a man who had been entirely unresponsive. Without missing a beat, the man finished it, "It fell to earth, I knew not where."

"I knew I had something," said Glazner.

That moment became the seed of a life's work. Today, with support from the I'm Still Here Foundation (ISHF), Glazner is bringing that same spark to Native American elders and people living with dementia through Poetry on Wheels, a participatory arts program now expanding in partnership with the Oneida Nation in Oneida, Wisconsin.

Funded by an ISHF Innovation Grant, Glazner leads monthly "Poetry Parties" at the Oneida Community Center, where elders create and perform poems together. The program is built on a simple, powerful insight that people remain capable of connection, expression, and joy even in the later stages of dementia.

"It's magical when it happens," he said. "If they're non-verbal, you can move their hand to the rhythm." 

Treating poetry like a musical chant, he often opens with a call-and-response to draw in participants. “That's the magic sauce,” he added

For the Oneida partnership, Glazner adapted his curriculum to honor Indigenous culture, drawing on the Joy Harjo anthology and creating Poetry on Wheels booklets featuring works like Simon Ortiz's "My Father's Song." After performing a poem together, he asks open-ended questions—How is planting connected to the ancestors? How do elders nourish us?—and weaves the group's answers into an original poem.

For Glazner, who makes his living through this work, the ISHF grant did something fundamental. “It allowed me to do the work,” he said. 

ISHF not only funds creative programs but also mentors grantees, captures outcomes, and translates proven ideas into guidebooks anyone can use, so that a program born in one community can take root in the next.

“Our message of ‘Hope in Action’ is central to everything we do,” said Sharon Johnson, ISHF Executive Director. “Gary's work is a perfect example—he meets people exactly where they are, and through something as simple and human as a poem, he helps them feel present, connected, and alive.”

Poetry on Wheels is one of a growing number of community-led programs ISHF supports across the country, each one bringing the “I'm Still Here” philosophy—the conviction that people can live well with dementia—to life in a new place.

Founded in 1995 by Dr. John Zeisel, the I'm Still Here Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that helps communities and organizations implement research-informed, non-pharmacologic engagement programs so people living with dementia can experience connection, dignity, and hope. ISHF works in close partnership with Hopeful Aging LLC, a National Institutes of Health-funded leader in non-pharmacologic dementia research, also founded by Zeisel. To learn more, visit imstillhere.org.