Unravelling the weave: a collection of poems on language, memory and dementia

Abstract

In this mini-thesis I explore the relationship between memory and language. Memories are the traces of our experiences. Language seeks to articulate these traces. Translating from experience to memory, and then to words, helps us map the territories of our lives, and shapes our perceptions. But memory is not always a reliable narrator. The maps and perceptions we create are imperfect representations, formed from the echoes of embodied encounters with the world. What happens when these echoes fragment? How do we navigate when the threads of memory unravel, and the world becomes a place of bewilderment? I explore these ideas through a portfolio of poems in the voices of a daughter watching her parents’ declining physical and mental vitality, and of a mother experiencing cognitive decline. Some poems subvert ordinary linguistic and syntactic sense to communicate a mind coming undone. Settings depend on the memories referenced, and include childhood, current experience, home and family. The portfolio includes a reflexive essay in which I consider theories, research and ideas related to memory and language. I refer to writers, such as Iain McGilchrist, Marjorie Perloff and David Abrams, whose work informs my own. I further include work by poets such as Seamus Heaney and Alice Oswald. I also consider the ways these writers employ words – their use of structure, voice, rhythm and sound – to transcend the limitations of ordinary language and invite readers into an encounter that moves beyond disembodied cognition.