The Power of Poetry and Connection
- Lauren McClellan
- Apr 24
- 2 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
Gary Glazner, one of our 2025 grantees and Founder and Executive Director of the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, is bringing creativity, culture, and meaningful connection to a Native American community in Oneida, near Green Bay. Through monthly visits, Gary leads engaging, interactive poetry sessions that invite participants to collaborate, reflect, and express themselves in ways that are both accessible and deeply personal.
Each session begins by reading inspirational poetry. Using a call-and-response format, Gary recites each line and the group responds together in unison. This rhythmic, shared experience helps “wake up” the group—energizing participants and sparking engagement. These opening moments set the tone for connection, confidence, and creativity. From there, the session shifts into a collaborative creation process centered on a theme—most recently, the idea of “blessing.”
Blessings
When I hear the word blessing I think
Food
Family
Somebody praying over me.
Giving Grace
A cathedral with stain glass windows
Our father in heaven
We can count them
Blessings smell like lavender and they calm me.
Like a fresh day.
Like a box of Tide.
Blessing tastes sweet as blueberry pie.
Like corn soup- when I taste it I remember my mother.
Blessing sound like angels, like trumpets,
like birds tweeting on a summer morning.
Like rolling thunder.
We say bless you when someone sneezes.
Blessing feels soft as bunny fur.
Blessings look bright as shining stars.
Blessing teaches us to learn from our mistakes.
To share things.
We say to blessings- thank you
Thank you, for fixing my car when the door flew open
and I had to tie it with a rope.
This poem was created by a group of people living with dementia who are participating in the Alzheimer’s Poetry Project. In this session the facilitator, Gary Glazner, read two poems to the group: “The Delight Song” by N. Scott Momaday and “Big Fun” by Diane Burns.
Following the reading he posed open-ended questions, inviting participants to share what the word “blessings” means to them. The first question was “When you hear the word ‘blessing’ what do you think of?” As the conversation progressed, participants explored the theme of blessings through the senses: what a blessing looks like, smells like, and tastes like.
Their responses were recorded and became the foundation of the group-created poem, simply titled “Blessings”. The results were vivid, heartfelt, and often surprising statements from the participants. A few things that were said were “Blessings look like stained glass windows,” “Blessings smell like lavender—it calms me,” and even “Blessings smell like a box of fresh Tide.”
When exploring taste, one participant shared a particularly moving reflection: “It’s like corn soup—when I taste it, I remember my mother.” These moments capture not only imagination, but memory, identity, and emotion.
The outcomes of this work go far beyond poetry. Participants are actively engaged, contributing their voices and experiences in a supportive, communal environment. The process fosters connection, stimulates the senses, and creates space for meaningful expression—often revealing memories and emotions that might otherwise remain unspoken.
The ISHF is proud to support projects like this that continue to demonstrate that even in the face of cognitive challenges, the ability to create, connect, and contribute remains very much alive. #HopeinAction
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