Poetry Month: Day Eighteen

A quote journal entry. I remember my dad teaching my brother and I how to float in a hotel pool once upon a family vacation long ago. He told us of swimming long distances as a Boy Scout and that, should we ever need to swim for miles and miles, the secret was in knowing how to float and rest along the way.

He went on to teach us that this same method can be applied in life's cold sea. We learned that survival comes not by thrashing aimlessly about but with faith that we are held and carried along.

First Lesson

Philip Booth 

Lie back, daughter, let your head


be tipped back in the cup of my hand.


Gently, and I will hold you. Spread


your arms wide, lie out on the stream


and look high at the gulls. A dead-


man's-float is face down. You will dive


and swim soon enough where this tidewater


ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe


me, when you tire on the long thrash


to your island, lie up, and survive.


As you float now, where I held you


and let go, remember when fear


cramps your heart what I told you:


lie gently and wide to the light-year


stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.