SUNDAY POETRY: "YOU SEA!"

Curl curl from Jason Wingrove on Vimeo.

YOU SEA!

Fragment: SONG OF MYSELF

by Walt Whitman

You sea! I resign myself to you also—I guess what you mean,
I behold from the beach your crooked fingers,
I believe you refuse to go back without feeling of me,
We must have a turn together, I undress, hurry me out of sight of the land,
Cushion me soft, rock me in billowy drowse,
Dash me with amorous wet, I can repay you.

Sea of stretch'd ground-swells,
Sea breathing broad and convulsive breaths,
Sea of the brine of life and of unshovell'd yet always-ready graves,
Howler and scooper of storms, capricious and dainty sea,
I am integral with you, I too am of one phase and of all phases. 

I think the photo might also be by Jason Wingrove. Found it here.

You might remember another lovely Jason Wingrove shorted I posted a while back, called Sea Pool.

The song in the video: "The Swimming Song" by Loudon Wainwright III.

THE NORTH WIND BLEW SOUTH

The North Wind Blew South from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

One of a series of amazing films by Sydney artist Keith Loutit with his pioneering tilt-shift/timelapse techniques that skew perspectives of time and space. The song is by Headless Heroes, sung by Alela Diane, off the album of forgotten covers called The Silence of Love. On top of all that, there's even a cameo of a sea pool, none other than the Bondi Icebergs, I believe.

SEA POOL

This teaser for Jason Wingrove's documentary on the Australian ocean pool culture in Sydney was filmed at the famous Bondi Icebergs—a club founded in 1929 for winter swimming. 

(BTW, the video is really worth watching in HD on Vimeo.)

Bondi Icebergs, photo from here.

There used to be a lot more lidos in the world than there are now—though there is something of a rebirth underway.

Photo of a beach in Australia, 1958, by John Dominis, from the LIFE photo archive on Google.

According to Wikipedia, a major breakthrough in lido revival took place in 2005 when English Heritage published Liquid Assets: The Lidos and Open Air Pools of Britain. Author Janet Smith spent years swimming in lidos around the country and her book explored the past, present, and future of open air pools. This, in turn led to two major conferences in 2006: "Reviving Lidos" and "Making a Splash."

Long-running—in one case, 20-plus-year—campaigns have resulted in the reopening of London Fields; Droitwich Spa Lido; Brockwell Lido; Clifton Lido; and Woodgreen Pool.

Be nice to see Sutro Baths in San Francisco reopen someday...

With or without a roof.