Learning To Swim. Poem by Michael Walker

Fortunately the primary school I attended
had swimming baths, not too deep, not too shallow,
so that I learned to swim in Year Six.
The teachers knew all about water safety and basic skills.

Methodically, the instructors taught us to float on the surface,
move our heads side to side to breathe. What a breath of fresh air!
We learned to move our arms and feet in unison for movement.
The main stroke was freestyle or overarm, as we called it then.

The other strokes were either harder or produced slower movement:
backstroke, breaststroke, butterfly, all had disadvantages.
Many good things followed from my learning freestyle, however.
I would swim lengths of different pools, then get a summer suntan.

In my fifties I could swim forty lengths of Newmarket Olympic Pool.
Still at primary school, I won a certificate for distances swum:
I had stickers from 100 yards to 880 yards, lacking only the mile.
Unfortunately my certificate was lost, but I am very much in the swim
of things: I am not afraid to swim against the current either.

- 30 September 2020.