Art Journal August Day 31 – Not Waving But Drowning

Hello friends!

My second post for today and this time it is for the final prompt for my art journal August challenge. I’ve enjoyed my daily pages this month and between this 31 day challenge, and the 61 day ICAD challenge for June and July, I have been creating daily for 92 days straight! It is very tempting to keep going. At the time of creating the August prompts I also jotted down prompts for September, October and November, so we shall see how I feel tomorrow.

Today’s Art . . .

For today’s art I am sharing the page for Day 31 of my #eotcartjournalaugust prompt which was WAVING

Day 31 Waving #eotcartjournalaugust

I had some salt leftover from making the Day 30 page so I used it to sprinkle on this ocean page too. The poem is one of my favourites, Not Waving But Drowning, by Stevie Smith. It was written in 1957 and often makes the top five in favourite poems lists.

There is a lot to think about in this poem, it’s not just the surface meaning, but what lies underneath. However it always pops into my head when I think about the time that I almost drowned for real and was not waving but really was drowning surrounded by many people all having fun in the sea. It felt so stupid having to call for help but if I had not, I would have been a goner. Not waving but drowning. Staying in the sea too long and suffering from exhaustion from too much fun in the water.

Nobody heard him, the dead man,

But still he lay moaning:

I was much further out than you thought

And not waving but drowning.

Poor chap, he always loved larking

And now he’s dead

It must have been too cold for him his heart gave way,

They said.

Oh, no no no, it was too cold always

(Still the dead one lay moaning)

I was much too far out all my life

And not waving but drowning.