{"id":133,"date":"2025-09-18T17:29:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/good-worldwide.go-vip.net\/upworthy\/2025\/09\/18\/former-ballet-dancer-with-dementia-beautiful-poem-ex1\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T17:29:00","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T17:29:00","slug":"former-ballet-dancer-with-dementia-beautiful-poem-ex1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/goodinc.com\/qa-upworthy\/2025\/09\/18\/former-ballet-dancer-with-dementia-beautiful-poem-ex1\/","title":{"rendered":"A 92-yr-old former ballet dancer with dementia wrote this achingly beautiful poem about aging"},"content":{"rendered":"

Poetry is an oft-misunderstood, but incredibly powerful art form. Humans have been writing poetry<\/a> for thousands of years, communicating feelings and ideas in beautiful, powerful ways<\/a> that prose just can’t quite reach. Poetry can be hard to define, but you know it when you see it\u2014or rather, when you feel it.<\/p>

Emily Dickinson<\/a> once wrote, \u201cIf I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that<\/em> is poetry.\u201d A poem<\/a> hits you somewhere\u2014your brain, your heart, your gut. And one poem that packs an incredibly moving punch has come from an unlikely source\u2014an elderly woman with dementia.<\/p>

\"elderly
A woman with dementia wrote a poem with one of her children and it's bringing people to tears. Photo credit: Canva<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure> <\/p>

Poet Joseph Fasano <\/a>shared a message from a fan <\/a>who shared that they had brought his book, “The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone<\/a>,” <\/a>to their mother, a 92-year-old former ballet dancer living with dementia. The mother was excited to write a poem, and they slowly worked through a prompt from the book together aloud.<\/p>

This poem was the result:<\/p>\n

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oh my god pic.twitter.com\/U89qPtVLig<\/a><\/p>— Joseph Fasano (@Joseph_Fasano_) September 26, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>