Swimming
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Salt
Now, nothing is ever quite salty enough for you. You have been caught shaking salt onto your bread at fancy restaurants, tonguing the rim of your margarita in order not to waste even a grain.
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Keeping Secrets from the Stupid
I was four years old when my mother taught me to lie. There were certain instances, she explained, when lying was acceptable, when it wasn’t even lying, really.
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Safety Rope
No touching unless he touches you. No touching where people can see. No touching unless dared to touch. Brad makes the rules, but never says them aloud.
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The Pool
You want to scream but keep your chin lifted. Pretend nothing has happened. You’re good at this. Marriage has that effect.
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Faith and Water
Amy Shearn writes about swimming and prayer in Forward: I like swimming though I suspect I’m not very good at it; pool visits involve removing my glasses and I’m so nearsighted that I’ve never actually seen anyone else swim, so…
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Pageantry and Water Sports
I had come in search of the meaning of synchronized swimming in modern America. Over the course of a week, I had gotten bored with the human body’s physical excellence. Maybe that was because, despite the spectacle at this level,…
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David Biespiel’s Poetry Wire: From the Earth to the Stars Part One
When you’re a diver, you’re only a tourist of the air.
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The Rumpus Interview with Rebecca Makkai
Rebecca Makkai talks about ghosts, teaching, chronology in writing, and her new novel, The Hundred-Year House.
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The Lonely Voice #29: Feels like the World, On a Story by Richard Bausch
Richard Bausch can take your head off with a plain sentence. He’s direct, no frills, no pirouettes. A writer who says what he means and not a word more.
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Ukemi, The Art of Receiving
In Japanese martial arts, the uke is the ‘receiver’ of the technique, the one who attempts to attack their sparring partner, the tori. The tori defends against the attack of the uke, who usually winds up on the floor after…
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On the Rocks
There was a lightness to the way the waves batted me around on the stones, the lightness of a cat playing with a mouse it was about to kill.
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The Rumpus Sunday Book Review Supplement
This week, Rumpus books has published reviews of a novel and two short story collections.