Roberta Beary

About the artist: 

Roberta Beary is the 2017 Roving Ambassador for the Haiku Foundation, and haibun editor for Modern Haiku. The author of two award-winning poetry collections, The Unworn Necklace and Deflection, she writes to connect with the disenfranchised, to let them know they are not alone. A photographer since her Polaroid Swinger days, she now uses her iPad to link her poems with images. More of her visual work can be viewed on Twitter @shortpoemz.

About the artwork:

"This is a photograph of my mother that I took a few months before her death in September 2013. She is with my dog Winnie. I was my mother's caretaker for five years. She spent the last two years of her life in the memory-care wing of an assisted-living facility near my home. I would often visit her with Winnie. At the time, my mother only responded to my dog and to music. 'Hello, Winnie. The food here is just awful. Have some.' This from my mother, who hardly spoke but would light up when she saw my dog and would make sure to give her a cookie from the afternoon snack tray. Her autopsy revealed that she had Alzheimer's Disease, Braak stage IV."

Visuals editor:

Justin Sanders