Loud voices in the night
speak out
Sparks fly then turn to
ashes
White waves break under
grey stars
Old snow slides over winter
sand
I stand near ice-covered
rocks and
Look south over black
currents
To site distant ships with
colored lights
In the cold crosswinds
Then I look for the Ambrose
Light…
I keep looking –
It can’t be too far away…
“The poem was written from the perspective of a distance swimmer contemplating the distance of the Ederle Swim from Coney Island Beach on a cold winter night. The Ambrose Light is somewhere in the Ambrose Channel close to New Jersey, but I never did find it.”
DaPrato is an open water swimmer from Brooklyn, New York. He has done the 8.2-mile Pennock Island Challenge in Alaska and San Francisco’s Bridge to Bridge 10k Swim twice (2009 and 2010), the Boston Light Swim in 2010 and the 2011 Great Salt Lake Open Water Marathon Swim. He also was a team member and team captain of a Manhattan Island Marathon Swim relay in 2010 and the Icebreakers in the 2011 Boston Light. He has also completed the Great Chesapeake Bay Swim, Great Hudson River Swim, Stars & Stripes Swim, Park to Park Swim, Brooklyn Bridge Swim, Little Red Lighthouse Swim, Cove to Cove Swim, and Governors Island Swim.
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