The poem begins as a kind of word game. "Health" slips into "holy," then "wholesome," then "hole," "mole," "sole," and "pole," each word borrowing sounds from the one before. It feels less like a statement than like someone turning a word over in the mouth and letting it change shape. The idea of being well, whole and sound, seems to sit underneath it all.
Then the poem opens out. "Hale," another word for healthy, leads into "words," "a little sky," a foot, the earth. The scale shifts from tiny sounds to something wide and physical. The last lines, with "loosening / the rain / from / the sea / front," let the poem drift outward and downward like weather coming in off the water.
The speaker never says how they feel, but the mood is calm, attentive and a little playful. Judging by the short lines and the gaps between them, the poem asks you to slow down and notice, letting sound and scenery carry the meaning.