Highschool campus, Crystal River running through. 40F - almost summer. Drifts of melting snow lie in the shade. Ice on river breaking up. At its mouth, we senior class men strip down to hidden swimsuits, and like polar bears, jump into its waters, and swim out into the lake. Water colder there. Swim back into the river, and feel warm – or was it hypothermia? Climb out, towel down. Nothing more to prove – we’ve celebrated long Winter’s end according to tradition. Thankfully, how thankfully, won’t have to do it ever again! James Gagiikwe © 2008 |
Author notes
Lake Michigan
Comments
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A small and brief event made large, J.G., and I often think, as this poem seems to, that it's those "nothing-to-prove", spontaneous happenings, often traditional, that are the most worth celebrating.
The poem is deftly vivid with brushed on dabs of color and action, even the temperature, and then finished with a bit of irony - "...thankfully, / we won't have to do it / ever again." The whole poem has an appealing youthfulness to it, just right for its scene. I think this is, for me anyway, a fine example of what at first looks like pared-down prose, but manages, skilfully, to end up being a poem in the best sense.
It's easy to be fooled by that kind of diction and bareness in a poem, thinking that's it's merely heightened prose. But I see it differently. The supposed "prose" is layered over a totality of feeling between and under the lines. That's poetry for me, and I like it.
Ciao,
Lad
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