Help finding a poem?

red_red_wine

A few years ago, my older sister was studying a poem in school, and I remember it resonating quite a bit with me. The poem occurred to me again today and I have been searching for it in order to reread it.

From what I remember, the poem was a first person narrative. The narrator had a friend/rival, who was, like her, intelligent. The basic sentiment in the poem was that while one of them (not sure if it was the narrator or the friend) finished school, the other's family (father?) didn't support her and she was forced to drop out of school (I think.)

My sister has no memory of ever doing a poem like that. She did her Leaving Cert in 2008, so I've looked through all of the poems prescribed for that year, but it doesn't appear to be any of them. I'm almost certain it was a female poet. There was also some reference to travelling on a bus, at least I think there was.

Can anyone help?

bigsmokewriting

I am 97% sure it's this one - it's in a couple of the Junior Cert English books.

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/liz-lochhead/the-choosing/

The Choosing

We were first equal Mary and I
with the same coloured ribbons in mouse-coloured
hair,
and with equal shyness
we curtseyed to the lady councillor
for copies of Collins’s Children Classics.
First equal, equally proud.

Best friends too Mary and I
a common bond in being cleverest(equal)
in our small school’s small class.
I remember
the competition for top desk
or to read aloud the lesson
at school service.
And my terrible fear
of her superiority at sums.

I remember the housing scheme
Where we both stayed.
The same house, different homes,
where the choices were made.

I don’t know exactly why they moved,
but anyway they went.
Something about a three-apartment
and a cheaper rent.
But from the top deck of the high school bus
I’d glimpse
among the others on the corner
Mary’s father, mufflered, contrasting strangely
with the elegant greyhounds by his side.
He didn’t believe in high school education,
especially for girls,
or in forking out for uniforms.

Ten years later on a Saturday-
I am coming home from the library-
sitting near me on the bus,
Mary
with a husband who is tall,
curly haired, has eyes for no one else but Mary.
Her arms are round the full-shaped vase
that is her body.
Oh, you can see where the attraction lies
in Mary’s life-
not that I envy her, really.

And I am coming from the library
with my arms full of books.
I think of the prizes
that were ours for the taking
and wonder when the choices got made
we don’t remember making.

Liz Lochhead

red_red_wine

Yes, that's it! Thanks so much, trying to find it has been slowly pushing me towards insanity

Oonagh75

On hardware broncos, half machine
With arteries pulsing to the piston
And hearts inducting gasoline


I did this poem at school but cannot find it now.
Has anyone any idea of the name of the poem or poet?
It is about motorcyclists but that is all I can remember.
Thks....

red_red_wine

This is a bit of a long shot, but I don't suppose it's 'Fifteen' by William Stafford?

http://www.angelfire.com/mi/patter/fifteen.html

Oonagh75

No , its not it I am afraid. One good thing is I just read 'fifteen' for the first time.
Nice poem!

Oonagh75

I am certain the poem I posted about is 'The Dreaming Spires' by Roy Campbell.
I have not managed to get all the text but from the little bits I have found, I am happy.
I am visiting Oxford soon and my sister was saying it is the city of the dreaming spires (from a poem by Matthew Arnold) However this poem is not about Oxford, but a group of motorcyclists happening upon a herd? of giraffes.
It is a fantastic description of these thundering gas-guzzling motorbikes. The riders are stunned into silence by the beautiful creatures.
If I manage to find text, I will post it.

chasmcb

Oonagh75 wrote: »

I am certain the poem I posted about is 'The Dreaming Spires' by Roy Campbell.
I have not managed to get all the text but from the little bits I have found, I am happy.
I am visiting Oxford soon and my sister was saying it is the city of the dreaming spires (from a poem by Matthew Arnold) However this poem is not about Oxford, but a group of motorcyclists happening upon a herd? of giraffes.
It is a fantastic description of these thundering gas-guzzling motorbikes. The riders are stunned into silence by the beautiful creatures.
If I manage to find text, I will post it.

I don't think it's 'The Dreaming Spires' but it does sound like it's Roy Campbell -one of his collections was called 'Talking Bronco', maybe the motorcycle poem was in that? This is the text of Dreaming Spires:

Dreaming Spires
“The City of Giraffes! – a people
Who live between the earth and skies,
Each in his lone religious steeple
Keeping a lighthouse with his eyes.

Each his own stairway, tower and stylite,
Ascending on his saintly way
Up rungs of gold into the twilight
And leafy ladders to the day…

Muezzins that form airy pylons
Peer out above the golden trees
Where the mimosas fleece the silence
Or slumber on the drone of bees”

Oonagh75

I think those three verses may be the end of the poem and it is much longer than that. I was thrown off by a giraffe sculpture in Edinburgh which has "the poem" inscribed in or around it. It is those same three verses. After reading that I thought I had been mistaken but I keep finding bit and pieces about the bikes and attributed to dreaming spires.