"Every day, less

And then less."

-- "Alzheimer's," a poem by Mary Zeppa

When Holly Hughes posted a notice in the journal Poets & Writers and on two writers' listserves asking for writing about Alzheimer's disease for a new literary anthology, she wondered if she would get enough responses.

Not a problem.

"Within a couple of months, I was getting submissions from all over the world," said Hughes, who ended up with more than 500.

Small wonder. When it comes to Alzheimer's, health care professionals say, we are witnessing the beginning of a tidal wave. As baby boomers age over the next few decades, the number of cases in the United States is estimated to rise sharply. Already, Alzheimer's disease strikes every 70 seconds, and the cost of caring for Alzheimer's and dementia patients in America exceeds $148 billion per year, according to Alzheimer's Association figures.

Hughes, a poet and essayist who teaches writing at Edmonds Community College in Washington state, is the editor of "Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer's Disease." The book, which includes a foreword by poet Tess Gallagher, was published this year by Kent State University Press.

Hughes has personal experience with the disease: Her mother, Colleen Lindsay Hughes, died of Alzheimer's in 2001.

Looking for poetry

It was her mother's illness that first led Hughes to look for Alzheimer's poetry -- for solace.

At the time, she found very little.

"I couldn't find any project like 'Beyond Forgetting,' " she said. "It just became very clear to me that this needed to happen and it was something I could do."

Hughes believes there will be more art and literature to come.

"To my knowledge, this is the first collection of literary poetry about Alzheimer's disease, though there are more memoirs coming out now as the disease becomes more widespread. There are a lot of people now touched by it, and turning to poetry to make sense of it."

She quoted from German writer Bertolt Brecht's short poem "Motto":

"In the dark times

Will there also be singing?

Yes, there will also be singing

About the dark times."

Light and dark

Not all of "Beyond Forgetting" is about the dark times. Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, is a progressive and fatal brain disease that slowly takes away the memory, personality, speech and judgment of the victim. It can take a heavy toll on caregivers as well.

But it also has its lighter side. Among other poems titled "My Mother Doesn't Know Me" and "Wheeling My Father through the Alzheimer's Ward" is Sheryl Nelms' "Early Alzheimer's":

"Emma set her

kitchen on

fire

because

she forgot

she was cooking

but the water

gushing through

the ceiling

for the bath

she forgot

she was taking

put it

out"

"I really wanted to choose a range of emotions," Hughes said of the poems. Though most of the book is poetry, she included a section of prose, including an excerpt from Blacksburg writer Diane Porter Goff's "Riding the Elephant." Hughes calls the prose section her "Trojan Horse," by which she hopes to draw nonpoetry readers to the poems unawares. She also chose poems that seemed accessible.

The 100 contributors to "Beyond Forgetting" range from famous writers such as Gallagher, an award-winning poet, to physicians and health care workers to Nelms, who works as an insurance adjuster.

Nelms says in the book that "Early Alzheimer's" was inspired by a real insurance claim.

It was Hughes' idea to have all the contributors write a few words about their submissions. The result is some of the most moving writing in the book. Writer and Santa Clara University lecturer Tim Myers, discussing his poem "At the Alzheimer's Center," notes his university office was located down the hall from the campus Alzheimer's center for seven years. He writes:

"I learned a lot about darkness, but I also learned about the unlikely light that so often shines deep within it."