Bathers

When they emerge
from the water in their soggy
bathing costumes,
their bodies
are like the landscape:

dunes and waves, grit and pearls,
sand and pebbles, seaside girls
in a rainbow of hues,
reds, purples pinks and blues,
shivering in the breeze.

The lighthouse calls from granite rocks,
a chalk stick tall and white,
and they sing that song
to a summer sky:

“I wanna marry a lighthouse keeper
And keep him company.
I wanna marry a lighthouse keeper
And live by the side of the sea”.

Kim M. Russell, 3rd June 2025

Picasso, Bathers (1918)

Today at the dVerse Poets Pub we are writing ekphrastic poems for Melissa, who is hosting Tuesday Poetics with three beach paintings by Pablo Picasso.

Melissa says that because it’s getting close to summertime in the north-eastern United States, she decided to incorporate the beach in today’s prompt. She decided to check out Picasso’s art and noticed several intriguing paintings of women on the beach.

Our challenge is to choose one of the three paintings she has selected and tell a story (in poem form) about a day at the beach, through the details of the painting, and should include aspects of shape and form in our poems and share which painting we’ve chosen in our posts.

Also linked to Susan’s ‘A Weekend with Friends’ prompt over at What’s Going On? because I imagined the bathers in this image and poem were friends spending a weekend at the beach together.

49 thoughts on “Bathers”

  4. I love that “their bodies
    are like the landscape:

    dunes and waves, grit and pearls,
    sand and pebbles, seaside girls”.

    And the whimsical bit at the end with the singing about marrying a lighthouse keeper, and living in the chalk stick lighthouse.

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  15. “their bodies
    are like the landscape:

    dunes and waves, grit and pearls,
    sand and pebbles, seaside girls
    in a rainbow of hues,
    reds, purples pinks and blues,
    shivering in the breeze.” These are such happy stanzas, Kim.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you, Sherry. I’ve often dreamt about living in a lighthouse. There is one not far from here that is rented out as a holiday home. A lighthouse or a windmill.

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