Layers

The Swimmer's Moment

For everyone

The swimmer's moment at the whirlpool comes,

But many at that moment will not say

"This is the whirlpool, then."

By their refusal they are saved

From the black pit, and also from contesting

The deadly rapids, and emerging in

The mysterious, and more ample, further waters.

And so their bland-blank faces turn and turn

Pale and forever on the rim of suction

They will not recognize.

Of those who dare the knowledge

Many are whirled into the ominous centre

That, gaping vertical, seals up

For them an eternal boon of privacy,

So that we turn away from their defeat

With a despair, not from their deaths, but for

Ourselves, who cannot penetrate their secret

Nor even guess at the anonymous breadth

Where one or two have won:

(The silver reaches of the estuary).

Margaret Avison

Margaret Avison is a Canadian poet, who was born in 1918, in Ontario. She graduated from the University of Toronto, and served as Writer in Residence at the University of Western Ontario in 1973. She won the Governor-General's Award in 1960 for her collection WINTER SUN. Much of her poetry, including her collection THE DUMBFOUNDING (1982), explores Biblical and Christian myth.

I am posting this poem for two reasons. The first is, that after seeing reference to "layers" within poetry that I have read on several posted blogs, The Swimmer's Moment came to mind. The second is from thinking about the questions we have been asked so far in this Introduction to Poetry course. I believe each of us has the opportunity to be challenged as we read and ponder the questions and the poetry. Hopefully, we will all emerge with widened horizons, both because we will have learned something we did not previously know, and because there can be no price put on this opportunity that few are fortunate enough to experience.