Swimming -- the last of my trio of verse journals -- was written between Memorial Day 1974 & 15 sept of that year.
r.j.s. publishd an edition of "about 235 copies" in 1976. my bibliography states that "about 190 copies" had hand-paintd covers by Mary Ann Begland with another 40 copies lacking the cover.
earlier this month I began work on a book project & needed to consult Swimming. in my search for a copy I discoverd 100 copies of the title page which the publisher gave me.I had totally forgotten abt them.
most of the poems in the book centerd on my use of the swimming pool at my home in Twin Lakes OH. I now live in a condo in Palm Springs CA & swim every morning. I knew I had to bring the me of then together with the me of 52 years later.
so I got out of bed on this my 83rd birthday at 4:44 & did my morning exercises. I squeezd half a homegrown grapefruit. after scrolling thru a surprising amount of online greetings I had a spoon of Hemet honey. then I slippd into my white Armani speedo. I put on my Monterey Bay Inn bathrobe with one of "85 Envelopes" in one pocket & a page from Gildzen at 50 that I used in my piece "Gildzen at 80" in the other. I grabbd the pile of title pages & my Blue Moon towel & walkd to pool #8. I circled the pool with the pages. then I went in for my swim. afterward I gatherd the pages & dried off. then I walkd down the street to El Jefe for my usual saturday breakfast & I gave my server Ricky the first of the pages.
