Creative Spaces: Nature in Verse

dementia, communities & environments

Our Creative Spaces in the Community project is using the outdoors and nature-focused activities to build social networks, foster independence and enhance the physical and mental health of older people living with dementia in rural communities in Cornwall.

We'll be using this section as a place to generally share our thoughts on dementia and those it affects, including relevant projects, events, activities etc. If we've read it, written it, seen it or heard it and we think it should be 'out there' then here's where we'll share it.

Direct contact with natural things and being outdoors provides, in my opinion, the best way to connect with nature as well as providing natural, sensory spaces for social interaction. On occasion, however, that's not always possible. To help in those instances we provide alternative creative ways in which people with dementia and their carers can access nature through less direct contact. Not as emotionally connecting but strong enough to allow people to socially connect through conversation.

One example is our nature poetry game in which we use the throw of the dice to determine the choice of a nature-based word. We have been using this approach in various Memory Cafes in Cornwall. In small groups, people take turns throwing the dice until each group has between 5 - 8 words. Each group is tasked with creating one verse for the whole poem. They create 5 or 6 lines for their verse based around the selected words.

It is these nature-based words stimulating people to recollect their memories of nature that help make the connections; not just between people and outdoor places but between individuals, because nature-themed memories help create shared experiences and/or interests. Memories need not be solely associated with learning about someone's past. They are an introduction to help us better understand the life of an individual in the present and from there it's just a step to a conversation about future hopes and dreams.......but that's another post on another day!

Back to connecting with nature through verse. If you've read previous posts you'll have seen the two poems created by the Bude and St. Austell Memory Cafes (see previous post 'Poetry for the Senses' 4th April 2014). Truro Memory Cafe members recently joined this list of budding bards. Their poem is below along with the poems created by Bude and St. Austell Memory Cafes.....just to save you from going back to a previous post!

To see how these poems have been created follow this LINK to our short film of the activity on YouTube.

Pages

dementia, communities & environments

Nature in Verse