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Tuesday, July 28, 2026

Poem: "The Swimming Lesson” By: Mary Oliver

                         Feeling the icy kick, the endless waves

Reaching around my life, I moved my arms

And coughed, and in the end saw land.

    

Somebody, I suppose,

Remembering the medieval maxim,

Had tossed me in,

Had wanted me to learn to swim.


Not knowing that none of us, who ever came back

From that long, lonely fall and frenzied rising,

Ever learned anything at all


About swimming, but only

How to put off, one by one,

Dreams and pity, love and grace –

How to survive in any place.

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