Writer in Residence Jacqui Stearn on swimming and the sonnet redouble

Gravel, the poem I wrote for my residency month in April, was a first attempt at a sonnet. Not my intention, but how it shaped itself. Poet extraordinaire Philip Rush, kindly agreed to mentor me and noticed that my skill in writing sonnets needed some work – a lot of work. Of course, he’s not said that to me in so many words, but has come at that critique slantwise with recommendations for readings, Seamus Heaney prime amongst them, and advice to leave work well alone for weeks in a dark drawer and then return.

I returned at the beginning of August, at the start of my second month of residence at Lake 32 and after my first swim in the lake itself. It was delicious, yet at the same time disquieting as it creates a moral dilemma that I will sit with – or rather swim with and perhaps explore in a poem.

Through my exploration of the sonnet form I came across the redouble. A demanding sonnet form which requires stamina – as does open water swimming for that matter. Created from fifteen separate sonnets, all save the last linked by the last line becoming the first of the next. The fifteenth sonnet comprises the first line of the other fourteen.

Will I meet the challenge? Maybe. There are three sonnets written so far, each inspired by Lake 32, including Gravel. When I return to the lake it will be with the intention - redouble in mind - of swimming multiple loops of the red buoys, taking with me the last line of the third sonnet, ‘Commit to leave no trace, but harm reverse’ to become the first of a fourth sonnet.

Exploring our present-time Anthropocene dilemmas through the medium of water and swimming will be the subject of the poem. How and whether writing another sonnet will create a worthwhile contribution to the challenge we face is what I will be grappling with. Wish me luck.

Jacqui Stearn is the Dialect x Waterland writer in residence throughout April, August and December 2021. You can find her on Twitter @StearnJacqui

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