On Her Own Terms: Poems about Memory Loss and Living Life to the Fullest

Internationally acclaimed author Carolyn Gammon conjures a kind and unflinching portrait of her mother's memory loss-ultimately revealing the love, joy and life which remain even as memory fades.Learning to speak in maybes-perhaps I told you Were you there -and to let a mother direct memory as memory vanishes, Gammon threads a path through time, bringing us into the heart and heat of a mother-daughter relationship that is changing as each day passes. That one day, may not offer 'the pleasure of a daughter's company, but only that of a warm hand.'Each poem reveals the intimacy of this mother-da ughter relationship, thrusting the reader into their dialogue and communication. At the end of each poem is a quote from Gammon's mother, often eerily insightful, reflecting her own youthful ambition to write: 'I am still clinging to the vine' and 'I find forgetting easy.'Kind, often funny, and always honest, this collection is for anyone who has loved someone who is beginning to forget; has forgotten; but will not be forgotten.These words offer an archive; a testament to the memory that lives in books-and a reminder that memory loss is not an insurmountable barrier to living a good life.