Swimming Lessons: Poems

Lili Reinhart

• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Literature
• eBook ISBN:
  9780008365684
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

I seem to be your new favorite novel.
One that keeps you up at night,
turning my pages.
Fingers lingering on me so you don't lose your place.

In her first collection of poetry, Lili Reinhart explores the euphoric beginnings of young love, battling anxiety and depression in the face of fame, and the inevitable heartbreak that stems from passion.

Relatable yet deeply intimate, provocative yet comforting, bite-size yet profound, these beautiful poems are about growing up, falling down, and getting back up again. They capture what it feels like to be a young woman in today's image-obsessed world with Lili's trademark honesty, optimism, and unique perspective.

Accompanied by striking and evocative illustrations, the poems in Swimming Lessons reveal the depths of female experience, and are the work of a storyteller who is coming into her own.

I can’t seem to write

perfect words

or make them flow as

they should.

They don’t sound

particularly profound.

I can’t paint you

pretty pictures

or blend colors like

other artists do.

My watercolors don’t

bleed beautifully.

But I can say I love you

in as many languages

as you need me to.

I can be fluent in

loving you.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a

moment to miss you,

and to cry.

This warm, summer breeze

on my balcony makes me think of

Cape Cod,

and your floral swimsuits.

How you never wore sunscreen but

always told us we had to.

Even in this loud city,

quiet moments exist where your

spirit is present.

And I feel like you’re sitting next to

me on the beach again.

So I’ll wait until the sun goes down

before I go back inside.

For now, we can sit here and listen

to the ocean.

“I love you, darling,” were the last words you said to me.

And although I don’t have a recording of it,

and although I forgot to save your voicemails,

I will never forget the sound of your voice.

I see you in every flower and every hummingbird

that happens to be near.

I’d like to think that it’s your spirit, just saying hello.

You surround me, always.

I miss you.

And I love you, too.

This is how I know

I love you so much.

Whenever I see something

beautiful, I want you to

see it,...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• Begin Reading
• Acknowledgments
• About the Publisher