Simon Stafford: Wild Walking
A poem about the phenomenology of inattentive type ADHD
Not everyone walks the wilds.
Those byways and highways,
liminal,
faint,
their enticing strange music,
calling from the distant hills.
Not everyone can hear it,
though it plays for all,
and once heard,
can never be unheard.
Drowned out a while,
perhaps,
given enough noise.
But sooner or later,
quiet returns,
waters calm,
sediment settles,
and the distant hills are calling still.
This cannot be ignored.
The first step on the path of the wilds,
is the last step out of the world.
Etherfooted,
walkers of the wilds,
needs must,
walk the wilds until the end of days,
following the music,
of liminal byways and highways,
of forgotten roads and strange tracks,
wherever they lead,
come what may.
Answering the call,
of their enticing strange music:
Onward,
ever onward;
there is no way back!
"This is a poem about what one particular experience of ADHD feels like subjectively. Ironically, it's an intensely attentive experience."
Simon Stafford-Townsend
Email: simon@thebristoltherapist.co.uk; Insta: @thebristoltherapist
Simon Stafford-Townsend
Gestalt Psychotherapist
UKCP Registered
My pronouns are he/they
