A Swimmer Is A Horseman - Paul Snoek

Swimming is licentiously sleeping in sprawling water.

is making love with each still operable pore

is endlessly being free and inwardly triumphing.

And swimming is touching solitude with fingers

is with arms and legs telling ancient secrets

to the always all-comprehending water.

I have to admit that I’m crazy for water.

For in water I breathe water, in water

I am a creator who embraces his creation

and in water you can never be wholly alone,

and still remain lonesome.

Swimming is being almost a little bit holy.

---

Paul Snoek [real name Edmond André Coralie Schietekat] (1933 – 1981) Belgium

Translated by Dr. Kendall Dunkelberg

Source: Poetry International

From: Hercules, Richelieu and Nostradamus, Translated from the Dutch and with an Introduction by Kendall Dunkelberg, Green Integer, Los Angeles, 2000