Spring sprung

My Auricula Theatre 

I first encountered this poem a few years ago and I've kept going back to it. It says so much about so many things. It's no surprise that the story of Persephone is so intriguing and compelling - nature, mothers, daughters, letting go, hope, despair, regeneration - all life is there. 

And that final couplet - well, what can I say ?!!

Demeter to Persephone

I watched you walking up out of that hole

All day it had been raining
in that field in Southern Italy

rain beating down making puddles in the mud
hissing down on rocks from a sky enraged

I waited and was patient
finally you emerged and were immediately soaked

you stared at me without love in your large eyes
that were filled with black sex and white powder

but this is what I expected when I embraced you
Your firm little breasts against my amplitude

Get in the car I said
and then it was spring

Alicia Ostriker

Are you on the path to mediocrity?

Hell yeah!
This question was posed yesterday on Swimming Without Stress, the excellent swimming shop with additional features where I recently bought new goggles and the stylish hat featured above.
I know the question wasn't intended in the way I'm taking it, but after a long dry period with no swimming, followed by several stop-start attempts to get back in the pool on a regular basis, the path to mediocrity definitely seems like a move in the right direction.
Spurred on by that question I got down to the pool this morning just after 9 o'clock, anticipating bank holiday madness, but no, we pre-empted the hordes. There was just a handful of us, all adults, focused on doing our own thing, ploughing up and down. As always, once in the pool, energy begets energy and creativity, and I get home buzzing.
In recent months writing has been difficult, I've found a hundred and one good reasons not to get down to it. Yet when I'm swimming, writing follows in its slipstream and the world's a brighter place.
So am I on the path to mediocrity? Let's hope so! Then who knows what might happen?!!