Gary Glazner

Essays and Reviews

Thrilled to have a paper published in a special research poetry edition in this peer-reviewed journal. Dementia Arts Mapping: observational methods for documenting impacts of poetry and recreation in care settings, London; Journal of Arts and Health, 2023.

That Time Gregg Rolie Slapped My Face

Famous people love flowers! When you are a florist, one of the perks is meeting famous people. Gregg Rolie of “Black Magic Woman,” Santana, Woodstock and Journey fame lived in Novato. “Novato Florist, may I help you?” I said, thousands of times during the 18 years I worked there.
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Expressive Arts, Basketball and Person-Centered Care

I graduated from SSU with a degree in Expressive Arts, with an emphasis in poetry, Class of 1982.

I recently discovered the founders of the program William “Mac” McCreary, and Hobart “Red” Thomas, attended a conference, held at a motel in Santa Rosa, led by seminal psychologist Carl Rogers, that fueled their founding the program. Rogers’ concept of person-centered therapy, flows into all my work with the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, with what in the aging field is called, “Person Centered Care.” Continued

Jack Hirschman, Rest in Poetry (RIP) (December 13, 1933 – August 22, 2021)

Jack at Babe Ruth’s funeral. Jack was in line to get into Yankee Stadium, with hundreds of other kids, when a milk truck pulled up to a stop light. The kids went wild, the truck driver freaked out and ran away, as they all filled their bellies with the stolen milk. Milky faces, sad at the Bambino’s death. Continued

Tony Bennett born August 3, 1926, gave a master class in creative aging, last night at Radio City Music Hall. As his family had announced in an AARP Magazine article, in February of 2021, that he had received a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, it was also a master class in using the arts to best navigate dementia.

Here are highlights from the concert in no particular order:

Lady Gaga coming into the audience, to sing to her parents and sister, kissing her father’s cheek and thanking her sister for the exquisite gown she had made. The gown was a tight fitting black and white number, which added flair, to her rendition of “La Vie en Rose,” made famous by Edith Piaf. Continued

Pastrami- One day I went to my friend Rodney Barton’s house. His family lived directly across the street from my family. We lived on a cul-de-sac, that is a word of French origin, that literally means “bottom of the sack.” In English, according to Merriam-Webster, it means, “a street or passage closed at one end.” As in, “Our house is located on a quiet cul-de-sac.”

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My first time, playing harmonica on stage was circa 1977, Ghirardelli Square, Fisherman’s Wharfe, San Francisco. For weeks I had been driving in from Marin to busk and try to get over being nervous playing in front of people. Also, I was pretty sure I was going to be a rock star.

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