Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Alzheimer's by Kelly Cherry

     Kelly Cherry is a resident of Halifax, Virginia. This is the state in which she was selected by Governor Bob McDonnell in July 2010 to become the recipient of the Poet Laureate award. Cherry originated from Baton Rouge, Louisiana she was Born on December 21st, 1940 and she is currently 73 years of age. She attended the following universities: University of Mary Washington, University of Virginia, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She moved to New York at the age of 5, and later to Virginia at the age of 9. She is best known for her 25 major literary works.
     He stands at the door, a crazy old man
Back from the hospital, his mind rattling
like the suitcase, swinging from his hand,
That contains shaving cream, a piggy bank,
A book he sometimes pretends to read,
His clothes. On the brick wall beside him
Roses and columbine slug it out for space, claw the mortar.
The sun is shining, as it does late in the afternoon
in England, after rain.
Sun hardens the house, reifies it,
Strikes the iron grillwork like a smithy
and sparks fly off, burning in the bushes--
the rosebushes--
While the white wood trim defines solidity in space.
This is his house. He remembers it as his,
Remembers the walkway he built between the front room
and the garage, the rhododendron he planted in back,
the car he used to drive. He remembers himself,
A younger man, in a tweed hat, a man who loved
Music. There is no time for that now. No time for music,
The peculiar screeching of strings, the luxurious
Fiddling with emotion.
Other things have become more urgent.
Other matters are now of greater import, have more
Consequence, must be attended to. The first
Thing he must do, now that he is home, is decide who
This woman is, this old, white-haired woman
Standing here in the doorway,
Welcoming him in.
     Kelly Cherry addresses the mental degrading disease of Alzheimer's in the poem by crafting a story of a man who is returning to a house that is unfamiliar, but yet familiar to him all at the same time. The tone is somewhat bright in the beginning of the poem when Cherry addresses the kind of day it is in England at that moment. She specifically states that the sun is shining and reader's such as ourselves get the image of a man in the door well ready to enter the house and a shaft of light falling over him. This vivid imagery and the light tone of the poem quickly shifts from one of happiness to one of confusion and deep, deep sadness. The man who obviously is suffering from the disease remembers building it himself, but what he does not remember is recent events, he pictures himself as a young man, which strikes a chord at everyone's heart. Hold on though, the worst is yet to be revealed. As you read on you see that he is confused by one thing, a woman. As reader's we can only guess at the identity of the mysterious white haired woman, but somehow inside of us we can tell it is his wife. The most heart wrenching moment is when we realize that he does not remember her. The tone here epitomizes sadness, and the author hammers the nail in the coffin by stating that the man had to, "..decide who this woman is, this old, white-haired woman standing here in the doorway, welcoming him in". This makes the reader feel silent pain for the woman and this is also the tone of the poem, despite the shift from light and happy to silently painful and sad.

2 comments:

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