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Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2021: Sonnet on an Old Scarf of my Mother’s
by Marc Woodward
This is quite a self-explanatory poem. My mother died a few years ago and my father a little afterwards. In searching for a scarf/mask to protect myself and others against COVID I pulled an old scarf of my mother’s from the cupboard. She’d spent her life raising her children then after we were grown and gone, she volunteered to look after elderly people in her neighbourhood. So appropriate that I should choose her scarf - as the poem says.
Poetry Archive Now Wordview 2021: Sonnet on an Old Scarf of my Mother’s
Are you still here in fine atomic form?
Some tiny particle embedded yet
within the weave, indelible – a germ
time won’t allow the fabric to forget?
Would forensic scientists with lab coats,
chemicals and electron microscopes
confirm that yes indeed, your hand brushed here
and through this fibrous mesh you once exhaled,
your soft breath passing like a captive’s tears
evaporating from a woollen gaol?
Funny then I choose this rag to bind my face –
not to inhale some dissipated trace
of your perfume – (what was it that you wore?)
but to help the vulnerable stay secure.
Poem recorded as part of Poetry Archive Now: Wordview 2021. Used by permission of author.
A special thank you to our WordView 2021 poets.
Chair of the Judging Panel, Imtiaz Dharker, says: "An idea that began as a response to the world shutting down has, joyfully, become a way to invite the whole world in. It has been exciting to see the entries come in from different countries, from marginalised voices, from people of all backgrounds who now know this space belongs to them. My fellow judges and I were struck by the immediacy of experience and commitment to language in the winning entries. It's also good to think that the rest of the entries will continue to be seen as an invaluable record of our times."
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