Please join us on Saturday, September 14 from 2-5pm for the opening celebration of NEUROGRAPHICA, a collection of drawings and poems by Hank Bjorklund: former New York Jet, lawyer, educator, and now poet, singer, and artist. Presentation and Q&A at 3pm.
Transcription of the poem written within the drawing above: “Been wonderin’, askin’ a few years or so – never get an answer, I just don’t know. Say, where’d all the good people go? Been to every city, checked in every town. Loaded up the trailer, drove it all around. Looked in all the corners, opened every box. Rattled all the doors, picked at all the locks. Never met a soul, never heard a sound, ‘cept echos of lies stompin’ truth to ground. Say, I wonder, maybe you would know – where’d all the good people go?”
In 2016, Bjorklund’s active and dynamic life was turned upside down when he was rushed to the hospital after collapsing at the gym. Even after countless tests, doctors were perplexed. Eventually, FDG-PET scans showed widespread reduction of glucose uptake in his brain. Doctors said these findings indicated an atypical neurodegenerative syndrome such as progressive supranuclear palsy, multiple system atrophy, fronto-temporal dementia, or autoimmune encephalopathy.
In 2017, two world-famous neurologists specializing in disorders of the autonomic nervous system (dysautonomia) advised that they had no explanation other than Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), stemming from Bjorklund’s 16 years of football, from Pop Warner to the N.Y. Jets.
Recent research from the Boston University UNITE Brain Bank and the Concussion Legacy Foundation show that the risk of CTE increases with every year of tackle football played. Development of CTE is correlated with number of years played, number of sub-concussive hits received, and the force of each hit. CTE can only be diagnosed by autopsy; Bjorklund is among those participating in clinical trials seeking a way to diagnose CTE during life.
“If I have CTE, it’s an atypical form. While my executive functioning is not what it was, I do not exhibit the significant cognitive decline or erratic behavior typically associated with CTE. All of my former teammates or other NFL colleagues who have died and had their brains autopsied at the Brain Bank have been found to have had CTE.” Bjorklund believes that more medical practitioners need to understand CTE, now that it has been diagnosed in the brains of military veterans, victims of domestic violence, and athletes of all ages.
“There was a time when I needed a wheelchair; my unstable blood pressure, lack of heart response, and vestibular malfunctions wouldn’t allow me to stand or walk. But now I’ve improved dramatically, both in my exercise capacity and in my functional fitness. And poetry, singing, and artistic expression have been magical healers encouraged by my wonderful wife, my physical and neuro-psychological therapists, and my cardiologists.”
When asked how he began to draw in 2023, Hank explained that it was a suggestion from the teacher of a local poetry class, Evelyn Kandel. “Evelyn is the former Poet Laureate of Nassau County. One of her prompts was to draw a free-form figure on paper and then to write a poem within the spaces that you created. I became instantly hooked. I just can’t stop doing it–it’s very meditative. I did this for myself. I never thought this would lead to me showing it to other people.”
Victoria and Hank Bjorklund have been married for 52 years. “Hank is a guy who only ever sang in the shower, who can’t read music, who hadn’t written poetry since high school, and has such significant brain challenges,” says Victoria. “But now in 2024, he’s published a book of poetry and essays, does public readings and songfests, and has studio-recorded eight of his poems into songs with his talented musical friends, Diane Menzel and Helen Kotzky.”
“It was just a few years ago, when his neuropsychologist was urging him on and his neuro-physical therapist was teaching him to walk again, that he’d go outside, even in winter, to practice with his hiking poles. The neighbors and I would watch as he walked around the patio in circles, reciting and sometimes singing at the top of his lungs his mantra poems that he wrote to encourage himself to keep on living. Now look at what he has done in poetry, music, and art, as well as his physical recovery. It’s amazing.”
This poem was selected by producers from Morning Edition on National Public Radio in celebration of National Poetry Month, and in April of 2021 and again in 2024, Bjorklund recited it on the air.
In his book, Head Hits I Remember, Bjorklund shares vignettes from his life and essays on the toll that repetitive head hits can have on the brains of those who play contact sports. His poems and prose discuss coping with chronic life-altering brain conditions, including dysautonomia and encephalopathy. He aims to inspire hope in those seeking the strength to persevere for one more day or to find a path toward a new normal.