Morning Swim by Maxine Kumin

Into my empty head there come
a cotton beach, a dock wherefrom
I set out, oily and nude
through mist, in chilly solitude
There was no line, no roof or floor
to tell the water from the air
Night fog thick as terry cloth
closed me in its fuzzy growth
I hung my bathrobe on two pegs
I took the lake between my legs
Invaded and invader, I
went overhand on that flat sky
Fish twitched beneath me, quick and tame
In their green zone they sang my name
and in the rhythm of the swim
I hummed a two-four-time slow hymn
I hummed Abide with me. The beat
rose in the fine thrash of my feet,
rose in the bubbles I put out
slantwise, trailing through my mouth
my bones drank water; water fell
through all my doors. I was the well
that fed the lake that met my sea
in which I sang Abide with Me.


The reason I chose this poem is because I like the way it flows. It also has a fantasy type feeling to it. That is how I have always thought a poem was supposed to sound like. Maybe fantasy is not the right word, I guess I mean deep meaning. You'll probably make fun of me because I think this is the "marching band poem" type, but I guess that is what I thought most poems sounded like. There are also no "high tech" words. By that I mean, words I have no clue what the hell they mean. I don't want to have to look in a dictionary to find the meaning. I also like how Kumin connected herself with the water.