As fall gives way to winter, I am settling into a routine and spending a few hours each day immersed in research for a new project. It feels good to be working steadily at something, after the dual luxuries of a summer off and an autumn filled with travel.

Each afternoon, at about 2 pm, I find myself missing my daily swim in the Aegean Sea. This swim became a part of my routine in Kardamyli, where I spent 10 days during Suzanne Harris’s amazing Breathing Space retreat.

The retreat was magical: new writing came effortlessly while I sat on the balcony of my little apartment, looking out at the mountain, the sound of the ocean behind me. When I wanted a change of view – or a coffee – I would walk to the other end of the village and sit on a terrace looking out toward the Mediterranean, sipping sweet Greek coffee from a tiny cup, and I would write some more.

Swimming

1.

sea calm, still

shades shift between
deepest blue, turquoise, teal
I can see to the bottom
the pebbled beach
gives way to sand
far below my feet

we tread water
talk and float in the sun
watch fish weave their way
between our legs

2.

today Poseidon is playful
waves swell as they approach

I learn the sound of this place:
waves sweeping into shore
the clattering cascade of rocks
rolling down, dropped
by retreating waves

a thousand years from now
this beach will be sand

3.

the heat of white rocks
beneath wet feet

Kardamyli, Greece
September 2014