Adult Poetry - Second Place

The South Simcoe Arts Council has been shining a spotlight on up and coming writers of all ages, in all genres through its Creative Works Writing Contest since 2016.

We are excited to share the winners writings with you. Enjoy!

This award is sponsored by
Gary and Dian Bowers.

Ode to the Town Pool

A pool is not a lake:
this shimmering tank
of chlorine-managed crystal blue
a lake no more than a putting green a forest.
Absent: the fishy, freshwater scent that
every lake uniquely breeds.
Absent: reed beds sheltering minnows, fry
and the gulls who hunt them.
Absent: dragonflies, turtles, loons and ducks.
Absent: a shushing shoreline strewn with
feathers, bark-stripped branches, broken
clam shells, mink-and-otter-hiding rocks.
Absent most of all: communion in
the rocking embrace with
the living mystery that is a lake.

But a pool has this: the timeless
play and boundless joy of lakeless children.
Eight-year olds with noses pinched
and eyes shut tight who cannonball
off its sterile sides; ten-year-olds who whoop
and flail in ridiculous flight off its diving board;
collective groans for belly flops;
hours drifting in the simple joy
of summer, under cloud-strewn cobalt skies.
And near the deep end's cement-bound depth,
girls who sing bubbled siren songs
and shape perfect, mermaid-tail-fin shadows
with their feet, till their lungs scream,
"to the top!"

As well, within its man-made walls, a pool
has this: its lakeless beauty: thin
bands of concentrated sunlight
which endlessly transform and reform
in soundless waves of amber light,
compressed and refracted across its surface
and man-made depth.
And this: the feel of rough cement
on water-softened soles;
the snap of rat-tailed towels;
the reek of never-dry change-room floors;
the rattle of chain-link fence shaken by
boys for the pleasure of the noise.
And most of all, the life-affirming shrieks
of children at play: gloriously,
carelessly, timelessly alive
to the floating joy of summer.