Long Breaststroke Poems

A puddle of fish. A fountain. A silver dish. Never try to outpace a whale as they are particularly good at breaststroke. And please don't slam the lid on the peanuts in a tin as...

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Walk through life with mirth
Laughing, loving, liberating friends and foes
Daring to enliven them as from my favourite firth
I breaststroke ashore and send a rose

To signify my noble intention
Meant to fulfill a wish 
I made to...

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Words! Words! They swim in my head. 
Words unwritten, and words unsaid.
Always dangerous, a maelstrom they say.
Perhaps they’ll become useful one day.

I’ve a lot of them jumping and paddling inside;
Backstroke, breaststroke, and on their side.
Dipping,...

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James was very disappointed at fourth place, 
In his final at Rio when he swum in 1:05:01,
“My arms just felt like lead down that 2nd 50m”:
He’s been to four Paralympics, many Worlds.  

With 12...

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“Perfect practice makes perfect”,  
Is Charlotte’s motto in life, principa:
She swims and plays piano, oboe, 
Loves musicals: Les Mis, Wicked.

Born without fully developed legs, 
Both were amputated above knee, 
When she was eighteen months,...

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Bethany swum for Ireland in London’s Paras, 
Her teacher dad used to be a church minister, 
She enjoys the Christian Fellowship Church, 
And raises her hands to praise god after races. 

She has an intellectual...

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Harriet has Beckwith-wiedemann syndrome, 
Something which shortened her right side, 
And she also his difficulty with blood sugar, 
But she’s a dog lover of Baya Bear and Bow. 

Born in Huntington which is a market...

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Poetry is a busy crosswalk downtown,
when everyone moves together with elbows 
held a little wider than normal.
Poetry is a middle-aged man, creased 
and folded, sprawled out on the neglected 
weeds in Woodruff park, eyes wide...

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Sascha Kindred OBE was born in 1997,
And is married to swimmer Nyree Lewis, 
Another gold-winning Paralympian, and,
They’re known as the “golden-couple”. 

Sascha’s CP solely affects his right side,
And he was born in Münster, Germany, 
He’s...

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Claire was born disabled, no left forearm, 
And at school hid it well under her jumpers,
But swimming let her accept, love her body, 
Such that today she’s a swimming medalist. 

Born in Redditch in Worcestershire...

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Scott was born premature, five weeks, 
With his brain fused to his skull, 
It was Crouzon syndrome, dysostosis, 
And doctors operated to null. 

He was a strong wee tike and survived, 
Edinburgh born, 1st July...

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As I sit on the bank beside this clear running stream
I look on in awe as if I am in a dream

My girl, my love swims in the translucent so pure
Her curvaceous shape in the...

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Now lightly sweep the peppercorns in a harbour. No drama. But underground is not a gate nor a post for these are only really ever positioned on hallucinogenic coastal paths where time stands and the...

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Rebecca was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa, 
Aged seven and was born in 19th December 1999,
In Droitwich Spa which is in Worcestershire county: 
She trains, works out at Worcester Swimming Club. 

Spotted by a British Swimming...

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life at times feels so hard
so much going against you
everything around you so dirty
looking for a filter to be true

Everywhere you look is clogged up
like all is blocked just like sin
effecting every strand of life
everywhere...

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Warm runs of runners,
Uphold my banner to God-
Liness with a hue.

The dream of blackest summers comes like rain,
It fondles my breaststroke through the waters high,
My shepherd closes in on my red pain,
And like a sheep...

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Each time I see a swimming pool,
I think of you and smile.
Your breaststroke and your butterfly
Could dazzle and beguile.

You aced your screen test with Clark Gable.
Don’t be bashful, drop a line.
You had entanglements with Tarzan.
Come...

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Aaron comes from Trowbridge in Wiltshire,
But recently moved his training to Swansea,
At London 2012 for backstroke he won silver, 
He has a learning disability, so swims S14.

In 2013 he won bronze in Montreal, Canada, 
At...

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Breaststroke on a Sunday
a lazy misery if ever one found
Set free from living mischief,
Serene beyond dull - free?
a wrinkled mind for
crinkled fingers the decrepit remainder
of home
Not lifeless, no more alive, though
than in helpless last moments...

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