The Joy of Swimming
Just read this quote on the ever-stimulating Brain Pickings blog( www.brainpickings.org/2016/04/26/the-joy-of-swimming-lisa-congdon /): “As you swim you are washed of all the excrescences of so-called civilization, which includes the incapacity to be happy under any circumstances.” (Anaïs Nin) Man, I need to get back in the pool! A poem will suffice till then: Lane Swimming The Victorians kept frogs in poolside tubs as exemplars of sharp kicks and a certain poise atop the water, and still at my local club an amphibious gait’s the stroke of choice, where swim-caps drift in lines like orange buoys, except for one whose feet erupt with spray: a Chinese student makes his way. Backstrokers lead the non-conformist set, along with one who wreathes her hair in a Sainsbury’s bag to stop it getting wet. Eyes cloistered in goggles feel safe to stare at these, and at a shape emerging for air, a tadpole wriggling, its tail newly splayed: a Chinese student makes his way.