Teaching Mother to Swim
At the September Hoot Nancy Jean Hill read the villanelle below, in which the traditional roles of mother and daughter are interestingly reversed:
TEACHING MOTHER TO SWIM
I was the one she trusted most
on a warm and sunny day
above the water, beside the boat.
I was the one who taught her to float
in the brine of Buzzard's Bay.
I was the one trusted most.
She meandered through sea oats,
waded way past her waist,
head above water, beside the boat.
I demonstrated the side stroke,
showed her how to play.
I was the one she trusted most.
And even when she began to choke,
it was I who helped her stay
above the water, beside the boat.
The words I love you caught in her throat,
words she could never say,
but I was the one she trusted most,
above the water, beside the boat.
The villanelle is the most popular and accessible of the French forms that employ a set number of lines and rhymes, but it is still tricky to write in English. "Teaching Mother to Swim" successfully uses the form's repetitive first and third lines to braid together the physical sense with the poem's meaning. The final stanza movingly underscores the unusual relationship of mother and daughter.
Nancy Jean Hill recently moved to Stratham from Holderness. "Teaching Mother to Swim" (copyright Nancy Jean Hill) appeared in her chapbook "Beryllium Diary," published by Pudding House Publications in July 2007.