As winter approaches
I often swim without a life guard
or even a friend watching from the shore,
returning to stones, sand,
lake weed, fish, the sky.
I know it’s foolish to stay so long
in October water, but I’m swimming
out of my daily life, out of myself,
losing heat to the source,
my heart to the universe,
until the soft lake water
holds me back from nothing.
Freya Manfred’s sixth collection of poetry, Swimming With a Hundred Year Old Snapping Turtle, www.reddragonflypress.com., won the 2009 Midwest Bookseller’s Choice Award for Poetry. Her poems have appeared in over 100 reviews, magazines, and anthologies. Her memoir, Frederic Manfred: A Daughter Remembers, was nominated for a Minnesota Book Award and an Iowa Historical Society Award. She lives near New Richmond, WI, with the screenwriter, Thomas Pope, and their two sons.
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I love the sentiment of this poem and also enjoy pushing the season on sunny days in September and October when the air's still warm and the water has not too cold.