One Common Thread
Another beautiful place
Another gathering arranged
French Alps this time, looming
How welcome the sun, the heat,
Swimming pool, balm after England’s
Summer, alas no show
Just six of us, glad to be met
Three who were girls
Once, long ago, together
Girls who had striven
Conscientious, best students
Frowning and fretting, with Molière
Racine, Latin translations
Set books, cramming quotations,
Scribbled the desperate hours
Clock-ticking in examination halls
Till moment in August dread envelope, then
Exultation- thank God!
Packed up, fussed over and finally
Farewell, tears shed, but hurrah
Could-not-wait, full of hope to be gone
All of us anxious yet cast-iron sure
That this was the hour, the place
Our time in the sun, new life beginning
What would it be ,for we three
Women of our time, Sixties
Beatles, the Pill, Women’s Lib
Sex just invented as Larkin would write
So first we found friends
Braver now, no more alone
Formative friendships
Founded then, forty years ago
And look at us now
Proof living of what happened next
Histories, lives shared
Of children, their children
Marriage and work
Countries and cultures, choices and fate
But one common thread
For six of us here, reunion
So glad to be met
10th September 2009, Grenoble, for Carol and Maureen, with love
Another beautiful place
Another gathering arranged
French Alps this time, looming
How welcome the sun, the heat,
Swimming pool, balm after England’s
Summer, alas no show
Just six of us, glad to be met
Three who were girls
Once, long ago, together
Girls who had striven
Conscientious, best students
Frowning and fretting, with Molière
Racine, Latin translations
Set books, cramming quotations,
Scribbled the desperate hours
Clock-ticking in examination halls
Till moment in August dread envelope, then
Exultation- thank God!
Packed up, fussed over and finally
Farewell, tears shed, but hurrah
Could-not-wait, full of hope to be gone
All of us anxious yet cast-iron sure
That this was the hour, the place
Our time in the sun, new life beginning
What would it be ,for we three
Women of our time, Sixties
Beatles, the Pill, Women’s Lib
Sex just invented as Larkin would write
So first we found friends
Braver now, no more alone
Formative friendships
Founded then, forty years ago
And look at us now
Proof living of what happened next
Histories, lives shared
Of children, their children
Marriage and work
Countries and cultures, choices and fate
But one common thread
For six of us here, reunion
So glad to be met
10th September 2009, Grenoble, for Carol and Maureen, with love
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