A Poem About Swimming

Swimming Home

I’m submerging

In viridian coolness,

In the sweet kiss,

Flowing, endless.

In this swirling essence,

Cycles of coming and going,

Dissipation,

Regeneration.

Watch as I take a leap of faith,

Plummet from the swaying tree tops,

Plunge into the great below.

My body, in those fleeting moments,

Is powerless, hoping to be caught again.

I fall, waiting for the endless seconds

Of uncertainty to end when

I am met with everything.

I rip through space between wood and water

To create reverberations in syncopation.

Our lines collide, rippling waves blending

Into one vast shimmering body.

Around me, matriarchal roots spread,

Slinking through mud and silt.

The tangle feels comforting and maternal,

A silent whisper that we are held here.

Languid willows slope toward the water,

Swaying, dripping silver slivers, arms

Extended as if to grasp the breeze.

A tribe of Oak trees twist and twine

Serpentine, in a race to reach the light.

The village weaves a canopy,

Shading us in jade shadow play.

 Somehow,

The sway of branches,

And the rustle of reeds,

Dance in synchronicity.

Somehow,

The hum of moving water

Sounds like a melody.

Even human beings fit into

The choreography in symmetry.

We are all walking and talking

Pirouettes of bone and flesh.

In these forms, so separate

How easily we forget

Our shared origins;

This one home in common,

Careening through space,

Waiting to be caught and

Cradled again in the mystery.

Like ripples on water,

We are intersecting

our lines endlessly.

Lives like vines weave

To hold our collective home

In a net spun of memory.

Take this leap of faith with me

Dive into the truth of our intrinsic

Connection.

Catch your own falling, flailing self

In the wave of existence.

Realize, as the ripples spread,

that we are one.