Retreat Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

I am in the pool, swimming -
Breast-stroke, crawl or back,
Beneath the spotless blue sky,
With tall palm trees shooting into it,
And capped by fronds partly lit by the Sun.

When I bob up and down pushing water
Behind with both my arms,
I see the pool-bed below
Full of light-patterns moving
Shivering, interlocking like bits
Of angels, springing from the Sun.

While afloat, gazing above,
Searching – for what I know not
Precisely – the brazen crows
Fly so close they might
Dash into my nose! They sit
On the edge, and dip their beak
Into water, and look up to gurgle
Water down their throat, while one
Is taking a cool bath by pool ladder
Shaking its wings and feathers
Till I can see the white patch
Of his skin behind the black:
After all, it is summer for him too.
Then beautifully dips his head
Twice into water, and then flies up
To the top of the ladder-handle,
Shakes himself free of the water
With a look of bliss in his eyes,
Like a naked girl towelling herself.

What is that? A white egret
Followed by another, but this one
Has a lovely brown patch
Descending from the crown of his head
Around the neck, back and breast
Fascinating as the Nude descending the Stairs,
Though I could never make out the woman there
The egrets fly with two black feet
Stretched straight behind them.

Afar at the other end, I see a young couple
Man swimming, and woman wet and clinging
To the side of the pool, were there yesterday too.
From bits of Marathi floating
In the midst of some English, they are local.
He is trying hard to teach her to swim,
But she is shy, looking here and there
And just enjoying being carried by him
In the water-pool. Then he starts
With breathing lessons under water
He is pretty hard-working,
But it is difficult to see results.
Wives in public don’t learn fast.

Two small boys with sun-glasses
Ran noisily from pool to Jacuzzi
Back again, jumped in “plop”:
Calling to mind Basho’s haiku!

I look up the top seventh floor
Knowing my wife would see down
Into the pool, but I couldn’t make out;
Vision of husband and wife being
One-sided always, and hidden from the other.

It is our wedding anniversary,
Thirty-six years of married life
We celebrate in Erangal beach
With the sea, the sky and Joti around
In Odyssey suite of Retreat Hotel.