Daily Poem: The Nude Swim ~ Anne Sexton

November 29, 2017 | Filed Under Poem for Hela | No Comments

The Nude Swim
~ Anne Sexton

Water so clear you could

read a book through it.

Water so buoyant you could

float on your elbow.

I lay on it as on a divan.

I lay on it just like

Matisse’s Red Odalisque.

Water was my strange flower,

one must picture a woman

without a toga or a scarf

on a couch as deep as a tomb.

The walls of that grotto

were everycolor blue and

you said, ‘Look! Your eyes

are seacolor. Look! Your eyes

are skycolor.’ And my eyes

shut down as if they were

suddenly ashamed.

Blue Sea and Sky

Blue Sea and Sky

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