On the southwest side of Capri
we found a little unknown grotto
where no people were and we
entered it completely
and let our bodies lose all
their loneliness.

All the fish in us
had escaped for a minute.
The real fish did not mind.
We did not disturb their personal life.
We calmly trailed over them
and under them, shedding
air bubbles, little white
balloons that drifted up
into the sun by the boat
where the Italian boatman slept
with his hat over his face.

Water so clear you could
read a book through it.
Water so buoyant you could
float on your elbow.
I lay on it as on a divan.
I lay on it just like
Matisse's Red Odalisque.
Water was my strange flower,
one must picture a woman
without a toga or a scarf
on a couch as deep as a tomb.

The walls of that grotto
were everycolor blue and
you said, "Look! Your eyes
are seacolor.  Look!  Your eyes
are skycolor."  And my eyes
shut down as if they were
suddenly ashamed.

Added: on June 9th, 2005 at 7:18 PM | Viewed: 10240 times | Comments (4)

Poet: Anne Sexton
Poem: The Nude Swim
Volume: The Love Poems

Are you looking for more information on this poem? Perhaps you are trying to analyze it? The poem, The Nude Swim, has received 4 comments. Click here to read them, and perhaps post a comment of your own. Of course you can also always discuss poems by Anne Sexton with others on the American Poems poetry forum!