Day 9: palinode

A palinode is a retraction of an earlier poem. It would have been neater to do this with a poem I already wrote for napo this year, but I couldn’t make it work. So I've written a reyraction to a poem I wrote as a teenager instead (largerly cos I have changed my mind on it over the years). The teen poem is first and the retraction second

No Compromise
I won't compromise, I won't compromise at all
I will fly and I will soar
I will touch the stars
And I will pocket them
And if I fall, then the ground will break my bones
But understand the ground
Is only there
To stop you falling further

A Compromise
I will compromise, there is no weakness
In learning how to swim
Flowing with the currents
Took me to sideways places
Flexible and motile, darting, changing
The stars reflected all around -
Suspended in my element
There are more directions
Than simply up and down