Towards a hospitable poetics: Accommodating dementia through contemporary lyric

Dementia is one of the major challenges twenty-first century. According to Alzheimer’s International, there were over fifty-five million people with dementia worldwide in 2020. forces us scrutinise how community, care, and personhood are defined. While has been increasing representation through narrative-driven forms, it precisely poetry’s capacity move beyond meaning-making functions language narrative that enables better accommodate morphic nature challenge its stigma. considering impact may vary between vocational writers, those new writing, positions this essay considers contemporary lyric offer a space hospitality live with, alongside, ethically. Focusing predominantly on Australian examples, article poetry seeks provide space, at times paradoxical, enabling agency, recognition, freedom, while also navigating forms attachment belonging. It can articulate as historically culturally nuanced be able navigate states difficulty precarity.