Distance Swimming
by Steven McCabe
In her mirror
She feels illumined by an accelerating process
Initiated by the 20th Century.
A darkening fog.
Klee-song,
Cocteau,
de Chirico,
Arise from her in swirling, serpentine eddies. A ventriloquist.
She unties a boat on the shore. The underground river.
Languages of illumining clarity speed into each other like blood in water,
As vast and translucent as the Northern Lights.
& For reasons both utilitarian and mythopoeic
The face in the mirror anticipates leaping.
& Distance swimming through shadow-lands,
Beneath the precipice of shallow, atomic time,
Within and without darkened chambers & coincidentally
Light reflecting upon ancient vials.
& Our spines an unbroken chain of receptor cauldrons.
& Her gift. The mirror.
Paul Klee catalogue (1951), Giorgio de Chirico painting ‘Song of Love’ (1914), photographic still from Jean Cocteau’s ‘Orphee’ (1950), pictured: Jean Marais and Maria Casarès
poemimage 
Lovely reminds me of the swim a thons I used to endure;)
Thank you Heather. Swim a thons! :- )
I really love this one!
Thanks Chandra!
Beautiful. I love the way you weave between the abstract and the everyday.
Thank you Richard. I’m going to give your observation some thought! An interesting perspective!
Great images in this, its like a dream. I particularly like – Distance swimming in shadowlands.
In the mirror of our soul all will be revealed, if we dare to look, or have I misunderstood.
Your posts always give me more to think about.
Thanks mn for this thought. Which adds more & more, to the post: ‘If we dare to look, or have I misunderstood.’ That’s a poem itself. An entire shadowland. :- )
Wonderful being immersed here in your posts this morning Steven. There is no floating on the surface possible. Experiencing the images and poems has had a deeply quieting effect on me….of timelessness.
Many thanks for these thoughts j.h. and I appreciate the thoughts of timelessness. It seems lately that timelessness or very very early time has been calling. Maybe even creating the art through me.
Beautiful. Rich in so many ways.
Thank you Karen.