WATER HUMANITY SWIMMING LIFE SPORT FAIRNESS?

Simple swimming, but where can you swim these days?
forget about indoor pools for a moment
what of swimming free in the rivers, lakes,
oceans from which we came?

I am all for saving swimming baths and facilities
In the urban environment
From the deadudley hidden hands of urban redevelopment
And private sector movements,

But, and, we swimmers should not loose
sight of a future world environment
that is glaciated with access to clean Water,
Water to drink, Water to wash and Water to
Swim in.

Water full of nutrients and life,
a biological swimming facilitiy –
a reproductive and REAL lagoon with real fish and corals?
Plants and a living ecosystem.

In varying scales of magnitude,
humanity can realise this paradise using
the ancient models of Chinese, Indian, Greek
and Roman use of waterways for social functions.

I compose verse and prose about swimming
in the canal, or the cut (as we call it)
in and around the Black Country,
the river Stour, in jest at first.

Years pass and i realize that our water ways
are our life lines, both biological and man-made
water ways, water works and water
bathing facilities seem critical for social activity
in the community.

the list of benefits from swimming are endless
and the competition is good for excellence
Oh, but what of that so contorted and abused term:
sport?

The fair and sporting activity of sport,
The sportsmanship of playing a fair game,
A good game, a sporting game
in which you dedicated
everything you have
gave it your all...the sacrifice
of time and energy.

Opposed to SPORT the name tag
of some minister
or a section of the most unsporting of entities:
the tabloid NEWSPAPER
or a sports magazine, a T.V station
help.


Yes, we like good competition and a good game,
the spirit of play lies at the heart of
healthy economic strategy,
philosophy and some poetry,
and all music, sing a song with activities
widely known as popular sports.

I feel the immersive environment
of the given activity drying up,
no lagoon, no wetness,
not even a foot bath


just a slightly soggy idea about how to distribute
the survival tickets
that will buy the means to
make and break
the rules for a few of the elite authorities
in whatever water-world we’re floating in.

So maybe forget about saving
the old swimming baths of England,
start planning your own swimming bath
and swimming facility.
imagine them, a fresh natural water-world paradise,
imagengine them

Draw, sculpt and sew them, present the
model environment,
animate big and large and share your work
in the streets.

Paint our new utopias and write
our dreams and footnotes to the image
the Art game can capture sport
in a way the news game cannot, i rekon.

The music game captures hearts
in a way writing dreams of
together we stir the components up
show HOW TO.
cast your visions
for a new past present future

--Steve Fly 7/14/09 (edited 01/08/12)

MARK MY SPITZ. 2006

Let me entroduce myself, my namez spitz
Mark to the flash pint, my tongue slice slits
No swummin' pool for me to fool in so i spat my fits
When i'm finished don't be askin why Tony Blair called it quits.

Stunk drunk and disorderly im back in the bottle of witts.
Untitled Blingdom boy to fish from the heart of great black gritz
no matter what they pay me brothers, the winnings we splits.
I swear i'm mad as a fish gets.

Dangerous when wet when the sportsczar permits
Any public pool service shutting down cuz of crooked gitz
But don't worry mark my words, marked like turds,
These flake and bloodthirsty politicos blow common sense to blitz
Their rhetoric and bankspeak, newstalk and knee-jerk.
Dem eatin' roast duck while my peeps spooning grits for kicks.

I'm having fits in the pool and i commits to the role,
Of chief splasher, wave maker, backstroke slack-2-wack waterword spacka'
Wet leg speaker of peace, bring a flask or a beaker and drink your peace.

Me mark to the spitz in this bottle of whats its, wet sits
With a bunch of sap headed council-men and some other old twits
Mark never submits to the lies and slits, 8 golds in my sights.
And still i like to grind my girl every night and play breat-stroke on her tits.
Calm your laughing fix the Olympics.

My names mark so make a note, strong swimmer like TUG-BOAT
Come sail with me baby on my twelve inch clipper
Let me try your throat, loosen that overcoat
DADA is not dead.

If i had my Merry Hill pool my tongue wd/ be cool & calmer
But spitz is the name now, and i'm bringin pharmageddon skitz
With only my birthday kit on i got a point to prove,
Spitz licks the chicks to study and watch the water move in the groove.

Listen up Black Country Illympiads
Come listen to my next typeface from brainwashington,
Flive just swum back from four years on the run,
Fly swim the line and hung to dry the facts for 3.
If i ain't swimming i'm screwin, or thinkin i'm super-fly
Spitzfire to take my ego facts higher, stronger, fitter
Keep the tax lower and help the rivers flower:
The message my spitz transmits.

I want to swim man, thats all
Without no water how do you fully front crawl?
all i got left is my freestyle, first off the blocks
i don't care, i dive into rocks, mud ponds and sewers.
I takes a dive into jive turkey rap land and build.
I don't worry about my rep cuz my reps with the band,
Coming back from a foreign land to an empty pool,
what these pricks expect? i was planning swimmajik 33/3 yards.
Now its all gone bulldozed and its tragic, comic?

How about a NEW swimming pool and some money for NEW teachers
Rather than backhanded deals for Church yard preachers,
I've just had enough, i'm going off (AGAIN) puff!
Steaming out of the water like a fishy gas.
Bright Green.

Fill back up the pool, you dirty crooked bastards
Its already poverty here my dear, is that not clear t you
Schools close and your put extra tax on water,
yo, how could i survive with a son and a daughter?
Give us our water.

"Sport England say they've donated £300m in lottery money to swimming over the past twelve years. So why are we getting such a poor return on that investment. - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/4651040.stm

--Steven Pratt. 2006.
(Edited 2008)

I'll RACE YOU ACROSS WATER!

MY LETTER PUBLISHED IN THE STOURBRIDGE NEWS AND MAYBELOGIC QUARTERLY, DESCRIBES MY SWIMACTIVIST DEBUE!



Race across water or sit and snooze




GREAT to see Nick Gillingham and Duncan Goodhew have spoken out about the baths closure, and I'm happy the Chronicle, Express and Star and Stourbridge News have all mucked in the campaign to save the baths. But where were YOU when the baths actually closed on December 31st, 2005? I was IN the baths, swimming, protesting IN the pool itself, not talking but swimming.


Communicating a message, but unfortunately nobody seemed interested in my protest.


I had the plug pulled on ME, as I swam, and a British Steel fence erected around me, leaving me caged in like a shark. The police were called and I just continued swimming, such is my passion for the baths I was willing to risk jail!



I challenge any MP, ex-Olympic athlete or Snoozepaper to a race across the Waterfront in Merry Hill and into the offices of Westfield. And I challenge you to publish this letter.

This is just the tip of the iceberg and an example of the kind of newspeak I have come to expect in Dudley Metro Parish. How long can we sit around and snooze while politicians and church councils dictate our futures?



Put your trunks on, grab some goggles and I'll meet you waterside!




STEVEN JAMES PRATT
Brierley Hill
West Midlands
United Kingdom
Europe
Earth.

Stourbridge News Letters