Norma Jenckes knows the costs of dementia more than most, having watched two loved ones travel into the shadowy realm where memory and personality slowly erode. First she watched her mother succumb to the disease, then, years later, realized her husband travelled the same road. Enjoying a fulfilling life of shared research and interests, Jenckes is blind-sided by the unwelcome and rapid changes her husband, a respected Shakespearian scholar, began experiencing memory loss and an increased inability to perform daily tasks. Unable to cope with the demands of academic life, he retired, and Jenckes, who had planned to continue her career for several more years, found herself trading her career for that congenial commitment. The transition took a severe toll on Jenckes, both physically and emotionally. As she adjusted to her new life, she found strength and comfort in two old friends: reading and poetry. Already a published poet, she began to articulate the pain, loss, and occasional triumphs of caregiving in her poems, emerging forcefully in new work that demanded to be told. The collection is broken into three distinct parts. First, she remembers her mother, a creative, hard-working individual who raised Jenckes and two other daughters with Down syndrome. Drawing inspiration from her mother's Irish heritage, Jenckes weaves elements of Gaelic songs and expressions into a poetic tribute to a strong, loving woman. The second portion of the collection focuses on her husband's life and personality. No longer capable of telling his own story, Jenckes' evocative poetry celebrates his life both as he was and as he is now, lost in the undiscovered lands of dementia. In the last section of the collection, Jenckes focuses on her role as caregiver, with all the conflicting emotions the responsibility brings. Jenckes refuses to soften the reality of caregiving. She deals with the frustration and pain with a clear, sometimes brutal honesty. At the same time, she's quick to find the positive in her situation, especially in a sudden eruption of her old faith. Her poems outline the love, stolen moments of clarity, and comic elements which caregivers experience. The result is Dementia: the Undiscovered Country, a collection of poems at once heartbreaking and uplifting.