Introduction Foreword Writing Together Coping Within The System Coping On My Own Coping With Teenagers Coping With Relationships Live Performance

Ian Brindley

Swimming at Prince Regent

I believe in swimming to keep fit
I used to dive. Now I dip down in
Plunge overarm or breaststroke
Down clear hear nothing
I’ve never met my real Mum
She went to prison when I was one
For lighting a fire in our house.

And I miss the magic of people
Holding my Nephew’s tiny hand
I’d like to see him more
But he’s 9 now
If he wants anything he just has to ask.

The sun shines in the huge window
The water is blue and clean
And I see people on the gallery
But I hear nothing, nothing underneath
Only when I come back up
And see people having fun.

 

Ian wrote this poem, his first, in a creative writing workshop at George Williams Centre, a Supported Housing Project in Portslade, Sussex, and then took part in the Brighton and Hove Adult Learning Project at Brighton Library in March 2010.