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The Friday Poem on 23/06/23

We chose ‘Swimmers’ by William Thompson to be our Friday Poem this week because we love the journey it takes us on – from the local swimming baths through the heat of the Sahara desert to the discovery in 1933, by Hungarian explorer László Almásy, of the ancient rock art in the Cave of Swimmers. The poem develops from the prosaic – skimmer drains and chlorine tubs – to the revelatory; the cave drawings implied a time when the Sahara was significantly greener and wetter than it is now. Thompson takes us on a deep dive through history, from the present day to the Neolithic, and leaves us gasping. Beautiful.

Swimmers

Next time you dive 
into a public swimming pool
think of the taxes, 
the architects, the builders, 

the water gushing 
through skimmer drains,
the tubs of chlorine, 
the lifeguards in their seats

like bored umpires.
Then of Almásy 
as he steps out of the desert heat 
of Gilf Kibir into a cave 

cool as an empty church. 
His torchlight
ripples on the rock. 
The darkness 

seems to hold its breath.
Then, his torch beam 
does a double take:
a stencil 

of a 40,000-year-old hand 
and above
three swimmers 
arcing through a dive. 

Imagine Almásy 
standing there transfixed, 
the meaning sinking in
until he runs, then remerges 

in the heat, elated
and breathless
as you might be 
as you are coming up for air. 

William Thompson is a PhD candidate in Creative Writing at the University of Bristol. Born in Cambridgeshire in 1991, his work has appeared in Wild Court, Poetry Wales, Acumen, Poetry Birmingham and elsewhere. His debut pamphlet, After Clare (2022), is published by New Walk Editions.

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