Rachel Toll

​

Three good friends went for a swim

The one who was fat wished she was thin

The one she was curvy wishes she was clever

The one who was clever wishes she swam better

All three friends thought the other two fine

If only they could let their own bright light shine

So throw on your swimsuit if you're fat or you're thin

Enjoy fun and friendship, enjoy the skin that you're in

​

​

Eeva Kilpi

Finnish writer and poet

​

Nukkumaan käydessä ajattelen:
Huomenna minä lämmitän saunan,
pidän itseäni hyvänä,
kävelytän, uitan, pesen,
kutsun itseni iltateelle,
puhuttelen ystävällisesti ja ihaillen,
kehun: Sinä pieni urhea nainen,
minä luotan sinuun.

As I'm going to bed I think:
Tomorrow, I'll heat up the sauna,
I'll treat myself kindly, I'll
take myself for a walk, a swim, I'll wash myself,
invite myself for evening tea,
I'll address myself fondly, with admiration,
I'll praise myself: You little, courageous woman,
I trust you

​

Jeremy Wellingham

Chief Dodo and Oxfordshire open water swimmer

​

sunrise solstice dip

goose beach on far side of isle

devil casts his quoits

​

flower moon ladder

shines on lake – swim at sunset

cygnets re-united

 

dark michaelmas swim
raison d'etre birthday cake
lit spire between the trees

​

 high tide, high summer

orange floats swept to kew

run red – name taken

 

flag claims territory

european picnic food

dappled lakeside shade

​

Lina Tengblad, Marielle Sjoren,

Anna Carin Olsen

100dagarkallabad, Gothenberg, Sweden

 

​

Bada bada bada, Varje dag

Bada bada bada, Varje dag

Bada Ja, Bada Ja

Bada bada bada, Varje dag!

​

Swimming, swimming, swimming, every day

Swimming, swimming, swimming, every day

Swimming Yes, Swimming Yes

Swimming, swimming, swimming, every day!

​

Joline Gordon

Poet, California 

 

It is an ocean
And it is mine
Somewhere in its depth lies my beginning
A love that has no end
For this I must swim

Through the darkness of the waters
A light shines through
The beginning of something beautiful
But then it disappears
I feel alone and lost
But I keep swimming

It's been a lifetime of comes and goes
It slowly fades or vanishes suddenly
Or it was never really there at all
I could drown in the hurt
But I keep swimming

It is always different yet the same
Always beautiful
Same falling, same love, same end
Always an end
But with an end will come a beginning
One day I'll find my beginning with no end
So I just keep swimming

​

Helen Edwards

Dodo and Oxford open water swimmer, swimming everyday in open water now for more than four years

​

Can you hear the stirrings of spring

Under this sheltering sky

In the icy cold waters

And the clearing of the air

Living in my own skin

Lodging in this beautiful world

​

The exquisite time of the setting sun
Opening the space between sky and ground
So life is even more than before
Port Meadow

 

Rising dark of sky

Dust of sun in air's memory

Birdsong like honey

 

Halcyon Days
Go gently
As Solstice approaches
To return the light

 

Peace, joy and happiness to all
The sound of thousands of wings
Belonging together
Opening to nature
Otmoor, Oxford

​

Missing the Thames
As my water journeying unfolds
In Indonesia.....

​

Spring emerging on the river bank
Growing in colours and compassion
Every year reminding us
We are not separate from nature

​

Mike Harris

Serpentine Swimming Club

and year-round outdoor swimmer

​

Sixty-Five swims, all

New seas, pools, lakes and rivers

Stanley's done LXVs

 

The Serpentine Pond

Is missing its swimmers but

Soon we will be back

 

Where's the Ice Machine?

We need a cool place to swim

With floating sauna

​

Brisk misty morning,

Serpentine Swims invigorate

Salmon pink torsos

​

Damp December Morn

Serpentine beckons

so does The changing room

​

Hawaii Five O

Waiting for Sheila, cool clear

Water swim today

 

Swimming under the

Sun and the Moon,

delighted By the Serpentine

 

​

​

Magnolia flower,

Last one to bloom, delicate,

The future assured

 

Last swim of the year

With Dames and Olympians

Darling Serpentine

​

"Bloody cold in there!!"

Sunny Serpentine swimming

Also lost dog found!!

 

Serpentine swim with

Swans, perfect temp, rewarded,

Spicy cheese flapjacks

​

Nippy Dippers in

The Serpentine today, sun's

Golden rays shining

 

Sixty-Five swims, all

New seas, pools, lakes and rivers

Stanley's doing LXVs

 

I was hoping to

Swim tomorrow conference

Beckons, no swimming

​

​

Christina Rossetti

Poet, 1830 - 94

​

Ferry me across the water

 

Ferry me across the water
Do boatman do
If you've got a penny in your purse
I will ferry you

I have a penny in my purse

and my eyes are blue
So ferry me across the water
Do boatman do

 

Step into my ferry boat

Be they black or blue

And for the penny in your purse

I will ferry you

​

By the water

​

There are rivers lapsing down
Lily-laden to the sea;
Every lily is a boat
For bees, one, two, or three:
I wish there were a fairy boat
For you, my friend, and me.

We would rock upon the river,
Scarcely floating by;
Rocking rocking like the lilies,
You, my friend, and I;
Rocking like the stately lilies
Beneath the statelier sky.

But ah, where is that river
Whose hyacinth banks descend
Down to the sweeter lilies,
Till soft their shadows blend
Into a watery twilight?—
And ah, where is my friend?