I’ve been in touch with Pells Pool writer in residence, Tanya Shadrick, for over a year now. Since almost the start of her project we’ve been excited by each others work, noticing similarities in process and interests. I didn’t get to meet her last year despite several attempts to do so. Her project Wild Patience involves her kneeling at the side of the lido, writing on pool length scrolls of paper, a mile of them. An intention to mirror the physical demands of the swimmers she is an ‘endurance writer’.
We made plans to meet again, this year. I would visit her at Lewes.
I parked and made my way around the back of an industrial estate. I had probably not found the most direct route. The sky was falling and nothing about the day was telling me this was what I should be doing.
On arrival the pool had just been cleared of swimmers. Thunder was rumbling over head, lightening threatening. An uncanniness to our meeting had followed us around, last minute changes to plans scuppering things last year, and this time the skies were troubling us.
We went for tea elsewhere and returned to the pool after a conversation where neither of us came up for breath. The weather had cleared, atmosphere shifted, and I went for a swim.
I enjoy the physical demands, the movement of body in the water. It is different to exertion on land. I noticed much more than during many of my swims, a connection with the water. Perhaps because it is so much longer than the pool I usually swim in, perhaps because the water is fed by a spring, perhaps because it is outside, perhaps the anticipation of the meeting or the shift in air and drama of the thunder storms. It felt different.
Walking back to my car, along a stretch of the Ouse river at the back of the lido, I heard a splash. I watched more closely to see a carp leap upwards and completely out of the water. Three times it leapt. I looked around to see if anyone else was watching. A fish out of water. A fish adjusting its swim bladder a likely reason for the leaping. It needs air as I need water. The carp needs time above the surface as I need time below.
