I feel like I'm swimming in 400-Meter Freestyle by Maxine Kumin

400-Meter Freestyle by Maxine Kumin made me feel like I was the swimmer, or at least like I was feeling what he (the swimmer) was feeling.  I think the way the piece is set-up (kind of like the strokes of the freestyle; arm over arm) added a sense of urgency to the writing- he has to swim quickly, so read quickly!  Also, I used to be a swim racer, and the author's depiction of what a swim race feels like and looks like is so accurate I felt like I was back in the pool.  The line at the end about his "plum red heart pumps hard cries hurt" made me want to say 'faster!  you're almost done!'  because I've been in the situation where you just want to stop pushing, but can't; the author captures that moment well by personifying the heart.  After reading, I realized I'd kind of been holding my breath.  The way the sentence length starts out long, gets shorter in the middle, and gets long again at the end of the piece makes it exciting to read.