Not Waving but Drowning Not Waving but Drowning "Not Waving but Drowning" is a poem by the British poet Stevie Smith. It was published in 1957 as part of a collection of the same title. The most famous of Smith's poems, it gives an account of a drowned man whose distressed thrashing in the water had been mistaken for waving. The poem was accompanied by one of Smith's drawings, as was common in her work. The poem's personal significance has been the topic of several pieces of literary criticism because Smith was treated for psychological problems. She contemplated suicide at the age of eight
My Friend the Chocolate Cake by David Bridie on vocals, piano, harmonium and keyboards and Helen Mountfort on cello and backing vocals. Bridie and Mountfort were members of an ambient, world music ensemble not drowning, waving. In 1989 Bridie took a holiday in New Zealand and wrote "a few more breezy compositions" that did not fit into the style of not drowning, waving. Upon return to Melbourne Mountford joined his project with her own writing. My Friend the Chocolate Cake took their name from a song title by an obscure Sydney band, Ya Ya Coralle. Bridie admitted that one reason they chose an all-acoustic act