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Learning to swim

By Bob Hicok b. 1960 Bob Hicok

At forty-eight, to be given water,

which is most of the world, given life

in water, which is most of me, given ease,

which is most of what I lack, here, where walls

don’t part to my hands, is to be born

as of three weeks ago. Taking nothing

from you, mother, or you, sky, or you,

mountain, that you wouldn’t take

if offered by the sea, any sea, or river,

any river, or the pool, beside which

a woman sits who would save me

if I needed saving, in a red suit, as if flame

is the color of emergency, as I do,

need saving, from solid things,

most of all, their dissolve.

Source: Poetry (July/August 2009).

Biography

Bob Hicok was born in 1960 in Michigan and worked for many years in the automotive die industry. A published poet long before he earned his MFA, Hicok is the author of several collections of poems, including The Legend of Light, winner of the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry in 1995 and named a 1997 ALA Booklist Notable Book of the Year; Plus Shipping (1998); Animal Soul (2001), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; . . .

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