SWIMMING
Swimming can be like writing
It can be quick and short
or slow and long
Starting a poem can be hard
like diving into cold water
from a racing block
It can be like the IM (Individual Medley)
where a lot of thoughts can be
spilled out into one stanza
like when one does the freestyle,
backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly
all within one hundred yards
Sometimes writing a poem
takes a while to get perfect
like the breast stroke
glide, kick, breathe
or it just comes out
like the 50 yard 50
Sometimes the pace of ideas
continues like with flip turns
during a 400 meter freestyle
Different poems
are like the different
speed lanes
in an Olympic swimming pool:
slow, medium and fast
Ending a poem can be intense
like climbing out of the
toasty, steaming water
of the Spieker Aquatic Complex
pool at Cal
on a cold, rainy, February day