Transmission
Published on 03 - 01 - 2021
Windproof was first published in the second part of Green Ink Poetry's Safeguard Collection (they picked a fantastic photo, as always)
It explores the simple comfort of a brand new coat in a downpour - but it also lightly explores reconnecting to nature, and how powerful the outdoors can be when learning to live alongside your mental health issues
You picked out the coat yourself – the first you remember, baggy and black,
entirely your own – with only a little help from your dad
and it was with you on that first ascent, cradling your skinny frame
and stood with you against godless torrents of rain; dark, midday skies
a slippery, unfamiliar ridge; and a solemn retreat to the car
where you wrung cold rain from the jacket’s wilted seams
That was a time, before all this
when you could feel the ground beneath your feet
the shifting of the stones that pave the ancient hilltop streets
watch the way he stepped and how his feet would land
and follow, to the top, without a map in hand
It is time for a new coat, now – sleek, and bright shimmering blue
a wind-tested cocoon; this time, the mountain is yours
next time, your mind may be your own
You can read Mycelium, my submission for Safeguard Part One, here