106. Poems to help people with dementia

Meyer’s inspiration comes from personal experience: She lost both her parents to Alzheimer’s disease, one right after the other, at the same time she was going through a divorce. “It was a brutal time, so I reached out for something hopeful,” Meyer says. A self-described “closet poet,” Meyer decided to get a Master of Fine Arts in poetry, and that led her to start Mind’s Eye Poetry, in which she facilitates poetry workshops with Alzheimer’s and dementia patients nationwide. She touts her business as “Rewriting Dementia,“ and her mission is to validate the creative capacities of patients and bring them joy in the process. Meyer travels to care facilities throughout the country giving poetry workshops, sometimes establishing long-term relationships with patients. During a workshop, each person contributes at least one line to a group poem – she’s facilitated more than 700 poems this way.