Poetry Friday: It's That Time of Year . . .

Yes, folks. It's mid-July. You know what that means. It's bathing suit season. Yay!!!! Time to go swimming!

What's that you say? You're not in bathing suit shape?!?!?!?! Oh, please, you are just SO up tight!

Don't you know that God gave you a body to enjoy? Can you really not remember that grand feeling --  the cold-shock feeling of a lake consuming you from the ankles up? Can't you remember the blue splash of a pool grabbing you cold and hard as you dove in? And what about that giddy can't-get-me feeling as you tried (and failed) to keep the ocean waves from freezing your knees and then your tush and then your belly (ah, your cold cold belly).

Seriously. No one cares that your old, old belly isn't quite what it used to be. And, well, never mind about your hips.

Just. Jump. In!!!!!!


homage to my hips


the hips are big hips
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top!

                    -- Lucille Clifton

After you towel off, be sure to check out the rest of the Poetry Friday offerings over at A Year of Reading.

And then, take a gander at some of these well-known writerly types and their swimwear, courtesy of the folks over at Flavorwire:

Hunter S. Thompson. (Look at him writing! We're very impressed by his work ethic!)

F. Scott & Zelda (Be sure to catch them in the new movie Midnight in Paris. Really quite fab!)

Lotsa Papa (Hemingway)

Eugene O'Neill (looking remarkably fit, don't you agree?) with his wife, Carlotta Monterey

Clive Bell & Virginia Woolf (Really,why wouldn't you be afraid of Virginia Woolf in this get-up?)

Tennessee Williams. (We're just so glad men's beach wear has evolved!)

Sylvia Plath.(Beautiful Sylvia.)