慈悲之诗

嘉莉Gendle, CUI大四学生, took a job in 2014 working at an elder care facility for Alzheimer’s patients. The unexpectedly personal nature of the work inspired a book of poetry chronicling her deeply felt experiences.

“I had no clue what I was getting myself into,詹德说。. “我从未亲身经历过老年痴呆症. 我盲目地跳了进去. 我说，‘当然，我会试试的.’”

So began her three-month odyssey into life with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. 该住宅位于一个居民区. Gendle was surprised to find she would be working directly with patients.

她说:“我在社交方面有些笨拙。. “Now I was interacting with all these new people and didn’t know if I had anything in common with them. How do you talk to someone who is suffering with an illness and doesn’t know what they are saying a lot of the time?”

Her first approach was to handle it clinically and cordially. But soon she found that to do her job well she had to relate to the residents as people.

“很容易说，‘这是一个空壳. 他们的过去已荡然无存.’但事实并非如此。. “家里的每个人都有自己独特的个性. 他们知道发生了什么. 当人们感到尴尬或悲伤时，我意识到, ‘I’m here to take care of you in every regard and that means getting to know you.’”

她很快就了解了每个病人的怪癖, histories and the names of their kids and siblings so she could do activities that jogged their memories. She also guided them through moments when they couldn’t remember and became upset.

一个人, 在Gendle的诗中改名为Steve, couldn’t speak and would get so frustrated that he hit people and tried to run away from the home. 他之前三次被赶出家门.

“He hated me I think because I was younger and newer,詹德说。. “But he had little moments where you try to listen to what he was saying and he’d say, “你能握住我的手吗??’ So I’m sitting there holding his hand trying not to cry.”

Learning the details of each resident’s personality and habits was important to serving them well.

“‘Give this person medication before dinner instead of after,’詹德说。. “‘This person will want to stay at the table; this person will want to run off.“了解所有这些细节需要时间.

一个人 would eat dinner, see his empty plate and think he hadn’t been served. Carrie learned to take his plate as soon as he was done so it wouldn’t confuse him.

“It attaches you to people really quickly, the little details,” she says. “I told my mom, ‘This job is going to be so hard, but there’s no way I’m not doing it.’”

在一个先进的 创意写作课 在CUI，关于这段经历的诗歌开始涌现. Gendle写了一首诗叫《正规博彩网站排名亚洲体育博彩平台》,这让95年的西娅·加文教授印象深刻, that Gavin encouraged Gendle to write a whole chapbook about her experiences at the home. (A chapbook is a small, stapled book of poetry, sometimes including illustrations.)

“嘉莉是非凡的，”加文说. “和她一起工作是一种荣幸. Week after week she brought in these vivid, touching and funny-in-an-appropriate-way poems. 我几乎每周都会为一首诗哭泣. 我的父亲和母亲都有痴呆症. It was a real privilege to be by Carrie’s side during this journey of exploring through poetry. She’s such a master of detail which is what makes it come alive— the level of authenticity and authority from the detail she observes.”

在老年痴呆症之家的工作激发了詹德尔的创造力. “As a caregiver you are like a poet because you have to notice details,詹德说。. “‘他今天没吃水果. 这是什么意思?? Maybe his health is declining and the emotions associated with that.’ The watchfulness you need as a caregiver is the same watchfulness you need as a poet.”

The watchfulness you need as a caregiver is the watchfulness you need as a poet.

Though she doubted she would have enough poetry to make a small volume, 在加文的鼓励下, Gendle produced a set of poems that read like a journey through her experience.

“Part of her talent is she’s open to experimenting in her poetic style,” Gavin says. “She has prose, sonnets, different points of view of a patient, a caregiver, her own point of view. 这是一个很棒的项目，也是一个相当大的成就.”

Gendle says she was so excited to hold the first copy that she went to her car and squealed.

“The whole creative writing course reinforced for me that this is what I want to do,” she says. “I like being taken on a journey, to see the personal side and be told a story. 写作将是我一生的事业. 这肯定不是我的最后一本小册子.”

Gendle shared her poems at a campus poetry presentation. “Young people have a fear of the elderly and Alzheimer’s,詹德说。. “(通过这些诗)他们可以看到其中的联系. People with Alzheimer’s are not monsters and are not scary. 他们只是人.”

CUI helped Gendle confirm that she wants to be an 英语 professor, like Gavin.

“我在这方面的经验很好 英语系,詹德说。. “我对它印象深刻. Professor Gavin is so enthusiastic about what she teaches, 而且有如此好的态度和坚定的信念. 这让我想教更多的人.”

On Gendle’s last day of work, Steve, the patient who hit others and tried to run away, died. 詹德尔在他生命的最后几个小时陪伴着他. “我真的很在乎这个人，”她说. “I spent three months getting to know him and now he was gone. It was upsetting to go through that, and that inspired some of the poems in the collection.”

Carrie五月毕业, then will marry and move to Sacramento to continue writing and pursue graduate studies so she can start teaching.

“I love helping people learn to love this crazy language I love so much,” she says. “帮助人们写作的愿望从未消失.”