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MSWA Bulletin Magazine Winter 18

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SHAKESPEARE, BOB DYLAN

SHAKESPEARE, BOB DYLAN AND NEUROPLASTICITY ROS HARMAN, MSWA MEMBER When I was 10 years old my grandfather decided to improve my education. He insisted I learn to recite a poem by early 20th century World War One English poet Rupert Brooke titled The Soldier. My grandfather was a tall, serious man whose forebears had left Britain two generations previously but he still referred to England as home. I was always a little scared of him, and tried to please him. I remember standing before him in my long socks and black lace-up shoes, hands clasped before me as I piped in my singsong child’s voice: “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is forever England...” For my birthday that year, my grandfather gave me a book; The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare which I still have on my bookshelf. I tried very hard to read it but I was challenged by the archaic language, and soon went back to my Nancy Drew mysteries. The book was eventually useful to me when I studied English Literature and went on to become an English teacher. William Shakespeare died four hundred years ago, give or take a couple of years. Last year my partner and I heard that Australian musician Paul Kelly had put some of Shakespeare’s sonnets to music, and after listening to them we became hooked. We decided to try and learn a couple by heart as a memory exercise. Neither of us has a good singing voice, so we stuck to reciting. Every weekend over the next year we would practise over breakfast. “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate...” It is a nice way to greet your bleary eyed, sleepy partner over porridge, but learning the sonnets wasn’t easy, and initially we had many in-depth discussions about 16th-century English as we deciphered the words and sentence structures. English is not my partner’s first language having grown up in Poland, so a lot of it was bewildering to him at first. Mind you, a lot of it was bewildering to me at first too, but I did enjoy dissecting the lines and coming to a deeper understanding of the sonnets. Maddie Godfrey is a local Perth poet, writer, theatre maker and spoken word educator. She is a Poetry Slam Champion and has had her work published internationally in anthologies, magazines, and literary journals. She has performed her poetry at prestigious venues including the Sydney Opera House and Royal Albert Hall. She teaches a poetry class each week as part of the MSWA Ode to Confidence group program, which combines speech pathology with poetry. As a memory exercise this was successful and fun. We both improved over the weeks, though my partner has better recall than me. I learnt a few little tricks and tips to help me remember certain lines. For Sonnet 60 for instance, when I come to these lines: “...Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow...” I have only to think of how I appear in the mirror each morning, and it is easy to think of time delving parallels in beauty’s brow. After a while, we thought something more contemporary might be fun, so we listened to Jimmy Hendrix singing the Dylan song All Along the Watchtower and decided to learn its lyrics. I found I could heartily agree as I recited: “...There are many here among us Who think that life is just a joke...” I’m not sure if my stern and serious grandfather would have approved of me listening to Jimmy Hendrix, but even he would have appreciated the lyrics. After spending nearly a year using poetry as a memory exercise I was excited when MSWA’s Speech Pathologist Jamaica Grantis invited me to participate in a poetry club, which we have named Ode to Confidence. This group has arisen out of the research project of Speech Pathology honours student Becky Balchin, who is exploring the use of poetry to help people living with MS develop confidence and speaking skills. Ode to Confidence is meeting for eight weeks during May and June. We spend half of each session learning a bit about the mechanics of speech, including doing some SPEAK EASY NARELLE TAYLOR, MSWA MEMBER The nursing home where I live offers speech therapy sessions which I’m attending enthusiastically in the hope that it will enhance any achievements I make at the speech therapy group, currently being conducted by the Wilson Outreach Centre. Two speech therapy sessions at different places – I will become so beautifully spoken simply because I am very keen to be such a person. All I will have to do then is to think of something to say that is worth listening to. I will launch myself onto the public speaking circuit and perhaps become wealthy and famous, either of which would be okay. Correct posture enables better breathing and consequently better speaking. Physiotherapy will help me eliminate my slouch. The path to speaking clearly is before me and I don’t see any major obstacles ahead. Like everything I’ve ever tried to do, I expect a successful, happy result. I will soldier on. Positive thinking has always helped before. At the speech therapy group, we occasionally have to speak before the class. I’ve been told that even after much public speaking, one still gets butterflies. With experience, one can teach one’s butterflies to fly in formation. I hope, probably every bit as much as my audience hopes, that it happens soon. The Members of the class don’t openly display any discomfort when I’m speaking, so I expect they understand. I rely heavily on my skills at charades though. exercises, and during the other half of each session, Perth poet Maddie Godfrey shares with us some of her poetry and her experiences in writing and performing them. We are also encouraged to read and write some poems ourselves, or read poetry by others. I am thoroughly enjoying my participation in the Poetry Club and hopefully I am improving my brain’s neuroplasticity too. According to the Oxford Dictionary, neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to modify its connections or re-wire itself. Multiple sclerosis can play havoc with our brains, with myelin damage and sometimes neuron loss too. Anything that I can do that might help my brain learn new things, or even remember old things, is worth doing. At the group next week, I will wear long socks and black lace-up shoes and recite Rupert Brook’s The Soldier. My grandfather is not alive any more, but maybe in that forgotten field where his body lies, there is a corner that is forever England. Warming up the body for speech! Did you know that speaking is a whole body process? It involves more than just the lips, tongue and voice box, but also the hips, belly, chest, neck, and more! Here are MSWA Ode to Confidence group members (L > R) Narelle Taylor, Ros Harman and Trudi Fay stretching the sides of their body, which helps to create more space in the chest to take deeper breaths, in order to better power the voice. Jamaica, our MSWA Speech Therapist, gave us exercises for our voices and mouths during the session last week. She told us that singers and actors use the exercises to ‘limber up’ and find them helpful too. I was surprised and pleased that they were so effective. I am sure that we’ll all benefit from having attended Jamaica’s course. 24 | MSWA BULLETIN WINTER 2018 MSWA BULLETIN WINTER 2018 | 25

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