Mind-Body-Spirit, Fighting Back

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Like so many of us, I was deeply saddened to hear that Dame Barbara Windsor died on Thursday, n big screen icon and small screen legend. I well remember her in the Carry On... films and later as Peggy Mitchell, landlady of the Queen Vic in EastEnders.

Sharing the news of her Alzheimer's with the world was a selfless act of great courage. Previously,  Alzheimer's - indeed, any form of dementia - was a taboo subject as, sadly, many mental health issues
are still. By encouraging it to be openly talked about and debated has helped enormously in providing a much needed focus on and greater understanding of a devastating disease.

I have published other poems about dementia on this blog, but the kenning below was written with Dame 'Babs' Windsor in mind. I don't have dementia, but years of hormone therapy for my prostate cancer have stolen so many precious memories that I often feel as if my life is falling apart; it upsets me; it also makes me angry to the extent that I will sometimes say and/ or do things completely out of character. I cannot begin to imagine how anyone with any form of dementia, their loved ones and friends, cope on a daily basis. 

We owe Barbara Windsor a debt of gratitude, as much for her campaigning as an ambassador for the Alzheimer's society in latter years as for decades of entertaining us with her acting skills, not the least of which has to be her  ability to make us laugh. To the very end, she was an inspiration.

(Photo from the Internet.)

MIND-BODY-SPIRT, FIGHTING BACK

I prey on memories
pick and choose those you keep,
those you lose,
any left sure haunt mind-body-spirit
like kind ghosts
watching over us, no matter who,
where or why,
self-appointed guardian to the best
of human nature

Enter, human nature
sussing me out, defending its rights
to the end,
confiding in few for fear they may fail
to grasp the nettle,
pursue much the same old lines of life
and its passion
for seeing is believing, no understanding
of identity fraud 

Identity fraud, something
I do well, insinuating mind-body-spirit,
undermining it
as much and often as possible, fight-back
notwithstanding,
yet never (quite) succeeding to throw
a knockout blow,
if only for misjudging its native passion
for joie de vivre

Even I, Dementia, must concede from the start
there’s no taking over the human heart

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2020