Lake Cane Poetry Archives
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Frogman Nighttime 5k OPs
By Laura Cole
Frogman Nighttime 5k Ops
If you swim, you could be tops
Should you regard the feat amiss
The deepest dark liquid abyss
Water’s surface shimmering sheet
Know you not what lies beneath
But if you dare to take the challenge
‘Twixt faith and fear hold in the balance
When you emerge, what will you be?
Transformed into a frog maybe?
Some wretched form human or beast?
Or Salamander, the very least?
Come and swim it does entreat thee
But you fear, “It just may beat me!”
One thing is true, somehow you know…
This night, subdue your greatest foe!
I love sloppy swimmers
By Michael Zahn
I love sloppy swimmers,
the swimmers who wobble,
the bathers who bobble,
whose strokes are not smooth.
Undaunted by taunting,
some slap the water,
can’t kick like a clock,
some could lose weight,
some can’t swim straight,
some are just dreaming
of post-swim cake.
These are my people!
Imperfect bodies,
imperfect souls,
accepting the fact
they’ll never win gold.
But still they show up,
wobbles, bobbles and all,
compelled to respond
to the water’s call.
A Day at the Lake
By Cheryl Van Beek
Sunrise winks over the water, wakes turtles,
lulls frogs to sleep under leafy sunbrellas.
A Great Egret ripples overhead, lands at lake’s edge.
Its cane-shaped head and neck reflect on the surface —
a white cloud, melting like time in a Dali painting.
Water lilies filter and cleanse the lake,
sprout buds like castle spires.
Whiffs of clover sail the breeze.
A Baltimore Oriole’s whistle-call
mingles with laughter, picnic chatter.
Sunset spills a glass of Rosé into the lake.
The moon glimpses its face in the mirror.
Branches scatter shadows of velvet slumber.
Frogs begin to sing.
Life-giving Water
By Suzanne S. Austin-Hill
A whisper from stream’s rush
becomes booming, deeper truths,
shouted by a pounding surf
She never turned a deaf ear
to solar psalms and moon mantras:
In lack, excess;
in punishment, rewards;
in a threat (cancer), possibility.
The ocean holds the key to her survival;
sunlight dances on the promise of her future.
When the world forgets, she remembers-
The ocean is among the best medicines.
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.1
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.2
She has both.
Notes
1 Isak Dinesen
2 W.H. Auden
I Want Lake Cane to Like Me
By Michael Zahn
I want Lake Cane lake to like me,
to share in my delight
to splash me back and tickle me
as we again unite.
The water never lies to me,
(its slap comes with a laugh)
I have to say its honesty’s
an aphrodisiac.
Its pulsing waves will take us
where no one else can go —
Kick and stroke and pant and hope —
we set the world aglow!
SACRAMENT
By Michael Zahn
Below me,
the pool vacuum
sucks up my sins.
The workout ends,
I jump out,
the droplets slide down my skin,
I shiver in gladness:
Baptized,
refreshed,
forgiven.
Again.
Pete’s Death Speech for First Timers
By Pete Gold
Death! The great motivator and deterrent. I am here so I don’t die. You are here, therefore, can die.
Dave’s Avocation Application
By Jay Madigan
A measly $3,000 a year at most,
Yet, a Mayors employee to boast.
Still a hard pill to swallow,
Must a Poet’s life just wallow?
In the City Beautiful, my host.