Read the winners of our 2021 Dementia together poetry competition

We were humbled by the massive response to our 2021 poetry competition – 141 of you sent us 220 poems, more than ever before.

Thanks to every one of you for taking part, as well as to the amazing shortlisting panel and our guest judge, award-winning poet Vahni Capildeo. 

Panel members included Pete Middleton in Northamptonshire and Gail Gregory in Lancashire, both living with dementia, along with Zaki Shah in London whose mother writes poetry and has dementia, and the poet and playwright Maria Jastrzębska in East Sussex whose parents both had dementia.

They were joined by two of our 2019 competition winners – Miranda Overett, now in Budapest, and Damon Young in Berkshire – and Helen Helmer, who heads our Publishing team.

Pete was keen to recognise all who entered, saying, ‘I would love to get everyone into a hall so we can give them a huge round of applause.’ 

Vahni adds, ‘The poetry which you generously shared for this competition shows real care for the musicality of language and the craft of words. 

‘I mean it from both head and heart when I say that you poets are all winners, and that I hope you continue writing. You are writing about aspects of life that need to be heard, in ways that reward a hearing.’

Category: From the heart 

Read the winning poems:

These were poems judged to authentically express a person’s experiences of their own or someone else’s dementia.

First place went to ‘The faces of sickness’ by Sian Breeze in Gloucestershire, a poem that Vahni described as ‘a beautiful achievement’.

‘Told in language that looks unadorned, this poem gently holds itself together with simple echoes (‘‘sick’’, ‘‘back’’, ‘‘batter’’, ‘‘butter’’),’ says Vahni.

‘Its art consists in allowing breathing space to images that have a slow but extraordinarily profound impact. 

‘The insistent focus on celebration, on the presence of three generations, and the youngest learning that ‘‘sick’’ can look ‘‘good’’, is a courageous challenge to stereotypes of illness meaning unmixed misery and fear. The fact that the young son is surprised shows that those stereotypes hold some truth. 

‘Hope and gratitude are decisions, not just passing feelings. This poem has the sweet toughness to foreground that lesser-heard, much-lived truth.’ 

Sian says, ‘I am training as a mental health nurse right now, so have had the privilege of working with lots of different people with the condition. 

‘This poem was written about my father-in-law, who had Alzheimer’s and passed away this January after a fall. My son, like many children, found the illness confusing.

‘He couldn’t understand how Grandpa could be short-tempered and solitary one minute, unable to be around his grandchildren, and how he could laugh and be very jovial at other times.

‘This poem is about the complexity of being unwell, and tries to focus on some of the positive times we had.’ 

Second place went to ‘Day 5 Bath’ by Valerie Bence in Buckinghamshire, which intrigued Vahni by its title.

‘This poem conveys the extreme peril that “ordinary life” like bath time has for those of us who are frail,’ says Vahni. 

‘The mother is literally on the edge – at the edge of the bathtub, but also poised between life and death. She grimly warns her daughter not to live as long as she herself has. 

‘However, despite this grimness, the quality of attention in the poem gives an overall impression of tenderness.

‘Crafting the language to tell us this story is an act of tenderness which is just as true as the refusal to look away from the pain.’ 

Valerie says, ‘In 2019 I took over the main care for my mum from my brother for a month while he went on a long-awaited trip to see his new grandson in Australia.

‘I was both daunted and unprepared for the reality of the responsibility. The month became a 30-day poetic diary – and this was indeed Day 5. 

‘Subsequently, Mum had a fall, hip surgery, her dementia rapidly deteriorated and she died about six weeks after being transferred to a care home.

‘Just pre-COVID, it was a traumatic time and her last few weeks will stay with us. However, to have part of this diary chosen in this way has been wonderful.’ 

Third place went to ‘When’s she coming?’ by Sue McFeely in Gloucestershire, which Vahni called ‘a dramatic poem’.

‘It is a drama of waiting,’ says Vahni. ‘Waiting is a huge part of life: whether in traffic, in a post office queue, on the hospital ward, behind the lines in war, or just for a mobile phone to charge. Waiting becomes intensified to high drama in environments such as care homes. 

‘This poem is not about being a “patient”, or about having patience. It is about the yearning that characterises the lover in the beloved’s absence.

‘It gives the dignity of the long tradition of the love poem to a person in the autumn of their life. It’s impossible not to be moved.’ 

Sue says, ‘I was inspired by witnessing the sadness and anxiety of an elderly gentleman who came to the Tewkesbury Day Centre for a few weeks so that his wife could have a break.

‘As soon as his wife drove off, he would start fretting and asking what time she would be back. The relief when she returned was written all over his face and his eyes would light up with absolute joy. 

‘It’s amazing to be chosen as a winner; it was so moving to see his two extremes of emotion and I’m really happy to have the chance to share this.’ 

Other poems shortlisted in ‘From the heart’ were:

• ‘Funny How’ by Yvie Holder in East Yorkshire.
• ‘Reminiscence group’ by Sue Ibrahim in Kent.
• ‘Memories’ by Sarah J Bryson in Oxfordshire.
• ‘Afterwards’ by Pat Harland in Nottinghamshire.
• ‘Music and Silence’ by Jennifer Willis in Norfolk.
• ‘Mum Says Ooh’ by Steven Croft in Greater Manchester. 

Category: A way with words

Read the winning poems:

These were poems using techniques such as rhythm, form and imagery to move us or make us think.

First place went to ‘Against Intruders’ by Ruth Higgins in Hertfordshire, which Vahni described as ‘a brilliantly tender and minimal charm against the inevitabilities of decay’. 

‘It is a poem strong enough to conjure a “fear not” while being humanly true to the terror we feel as our selves are lost to ourselves,’ says Vahni. 

‘This poem, arranged in couplets, begins with “And”, placing us in the middle of some process already begun. It is, cleverly, a countdown poem.

‘There are three appeals, or reminders, to “Take”, “take”, “take” steps to remember things in words.

‘Then there is a twice-repeated action of drawing. These and many more subtle and overt techniques chart what is happening to the human person, without losing the musical, almost magical, qualities of language.’ 

Ruth says, ‘When I wrote this poem, I was thinking of those times when we draw on significant moments and everyday positive experiences to “hold our ground” when things get difficult. 

‘I was amazed to win and really delighted that the poem spoke to a writer as brilliant and inventive as Vahni Capildeo.’ 

Second place went to ‘The Bloodknot’ by Peter Russell in Glasgow, which Vahni thought was ‘a powerful poem’.

‘The great technical control of the consistent image of fishing, drawn from lived experience and extended into symbolic meaning, is matched by the skilful use of the tercet form and of rhymes, near-rhymes, or off-rhymes,’ says Vahni. 

‘This control is counterpointed by surging emotions just below the surface. There is new depth to this disturbing, beautiful work on every re-reading. 

‘I especially loved the run-on lines in the last two stanzas and the double meaning of “reel in memories”, which felt at once accelerated and elegiac, like the progress of loss even while the moment is cherished.’ 

Peter says, ‘My father had a prodigious memory, including for the things that he picked up and were useful for fishing. I noticed that he was losing interest in fishing as he became affected by his dementia.

‘This of course saddened me greatly, both on his behalf and because it was something that we shared, both when I was a child and in later life. I always remember him for sharing it with me – and I will always be grateful. 

‘I am of course honoured. I also read the poem to younger people at spoken word events, hoping they will get an insight into dementia and the losses it brings.’ 

Third place went to ‘Salad’ by Sadie Maskery in East Lothian, described by Vahni as ‘a deceptively artless poem’. 

‘Every sound has been chosen with absolute care, from the rough, potentially conflictive r-, sl-, fr- and st- sounds of the beginning to the softer l- and sl- sounds which overtake the poem’s soundscape,’ says Vahni. 

‘The act of making something ordinary, nourishing, and everyday – a sandwich – and how that act, from being simple, turns into a challenge, is potently symbolic as well as true to life, an excellent image for the condition under consideration.

‘The unexpected “harder he cried”, rather than the more expected “harder he tried”, delivers a shock of deep pathos as a strong man loses his grip. Wonderful work.’ 

Sadie says, ‘It is a privilege to be part of something that helps to spread awareness of Alzheimer’s and the different ways it can affect people living with it as well as those around them.

‘Thank you for the opportunity.’ 

Other poems shortlisted in ‘A way with words’ were:

• ‘Fleeting Memories’ by Taymaz Valley in Cambridgeshire.
• ‘A Clean Break’ by Fiona Heatlie in Glasgow.
• ‘A kaleidoscope of memories’ by Gary Hodge in Devon.
• ‘The last goodbye’ by Margot Tilbury in Hampshire.
• ‘That Old Dance’ by Catherine Charlwood in Liverpool.
• ‘Pushing your dotage’ by Anna Somerset in Greater London.
• ‘Looking Games’ by Amanda de Blaquière in Wirral.